Shanghai is under enormous pressure to try to contain the biggest Covid outbreak in China since the Wuhan crisis.
Shanghai:
China’s commercial capital, Shanghai, warned on Wednesday that anyone violating the COVID-19 lockdown rules will be severely dealt with, as well as rallying people to defend their city as the number of new cases soared to more than 25,000.
City police have outlined the restrictions facing most of its 25 million residents, calling on them to “fight the epidemic with one heart… and work together for an early victory.”
“Those who violate the provisions of this notice will be dealt with in strict accordance with the law by public security bodies … If it is a crime, they will be investigated according to the law,” the department said in a statement.
The financial center has been under immense pressure to try to contain China’s largest COVID-19 outbreak since the coronavirus was first detected in the city of Wuhan, some 800 km (500 miles) to the west, in late 2019.
Shanghai police also banned cars from the road except those involved in epidemic prevention or transporting people in need of emergency medical care.
They also warned increasingly frustrated residents, millions of whom are confined to their homes and struggling to obtain daily supplies, not to spread false information or falsify passes or other approval certificates.
Shanghai reported 25,141 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases for Tuesday, up from 22,348 a day earlier, and symptomatic cases also jumped to 1,189 from 994, city authorities said.
Shanghai’s COVID measures, which reflect China’s strict “zero-COVID” approach aimed at eliminating transmission chains, have resonated with the global economy, with analysts warning that they will not only hurt tourism and hospitality, but also impacted supply chains across all sectors.
“The widespread lockdown and stricter zero-COVID restrictions in several cities around Shanghai have resulted in significant supply disruptions with transportation and logistics under heavy pressure,” Barclays Bank economist Jian Chang said in a note.
At least 11 Taiwanese companies, which mainly make parts for electronics, said on Wednesday they would stop production due to the disruption caused by COVID controls in China.
Chang said economic and supply pressures “have likely accelerated the transition to a gradual and prudent zero-COVID existence”.
The Caixin media group reported that Shanghai was one of eight cities involved in a pilot project launched Monday to reduce centralized quarantine requirements from 14 to 10 days, citing a government plan set out in a document that has not been formalized. published.
The authorities involved were not immediately available for comment on the report.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
