Shanghai government may extend Pudong lockdown beyond Friday as Covid-19 infections surge, say sources | South China Morning Post
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Shanghai government may extend Pudong lockdown beyond Friday as Covid-19 infections surge, say sources
The lockdown of the area of 5.7 million people had been due to expire tomorrow, as Puxi, to the west of the river, starts its four-day shutdow. But only a small number of residential compounds and commercial areas classified as low-risk will be allowed to reopen, say two local government sources
Most of the Pudong area of Shanghai is likely to remain locked down beyond Friday, according to sources, after a four-day effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 on the eastern side of Huangpu River proved insufficient.The lockdown of the area of 5.7 million people announced on Sunday had been due to expire tomorrow, as Puxi, to the west of the river, starts its four-day lockdown.But only a small number of residential compounds and commercial areas in Pudong classified as low-risk will be allowed to reopen, according to two local government sources with knowledge of the matter.An extension of the lockdown in Pudong, overlapping with the new measures in Puxi, would mean that the mainland’s commercial and financial capital effectively finds itself under citywide lockdown – a situation ruled out by the authorities as recently as two weeks ago.The sources said the decision to keep most of Pudong sealed off, was a result of the surge in infections – largely asymptomatic – revealed by mass testing.
Shanghai imposes phased lockdowns as daily Covid infection numbers surge beyond 3,000Local officials have yet to decide how long the extension will last, but sources said a step-by-step approach would be taken to gradually lift restrictions on most residential compounds, retailers and manufacturing sites.Ma Chunlei, secretary general of the Shanghai municipal government, told a media briefing on Thursday that the local authorities would study how to lift the lockdown only once it had solicited opinions from experts commissioned by the national authorities.
“We will work out a plan to lift the lockdown in a scientific and orderly manner,” he said. “As Puxi goes into lockdown, the area with an even larger population of 16 million and a bigger geographic size, the situation will become more complicated. We will do our utmost to speed up screening for [Covid-19] cases.”He apologised for his government’s failure to contain the recent outbreak, admitting it had been ill-prepared for the virulence of the Omicron variant.“We sincerely accept your criticism and are working hard to improve it,” Ma said.His remarks came after Shanghai Communist Party boss Li Qiang pledged to go all-out to eliminate the virus entirely during a government conference on Wednesday evening.The phased lockdown, announced by Shanghai government on Sunday evening, represented a U turn by the city’s leaders.By Thursday, Shanghai had reported about 32,000 Covid-19 infections since this wave of the outbreak started on March 1. Most of them were asymptomatic.The tidal wave of cases has put Shanghai’s much-lauded containment strategy at risk. The city, with a population of 25 million, had reported less than 300 coronavirus infections since the outbreak began in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province, in December 2019.
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