shanghai: Shanghai will lock down 16 million in toughest virus test yet – Times of India

Part two of Shanghai’s phased lockdown will see some 16 million people confined to their homes, with residents urged to isolate from members of their own household as authorities seek to curtail a record outbreak that’s brought unprecedented disruptions to the financial hub.
Residents in the western part of the city, where about two-thirds of Shanghai’s population lives, will begin a four-day lockdown at 3 a.m. on Friday. That’s two hours before the eastern half — home to almost 9 million people — emerges from their own lockdown that began early Monday morning.
The new lockdown will be more complicated than the first given the greater number of people and bigger geographical area, Ma Chunlei, the city’s secretary general, said at a briefing on Thursday. Authorities will consult with experts and review test results when deciding how to lift restrictions for the eastern part of the city, he said.

Most parts of eastern Shanghai will resume public transport on Friday, though it will stay suspended in some areas, an official said.
The spread of the highly transmissible omicron strain to the financial hub is the biggest test yet for President Xi Jinping’s dual goals of eliminating the virus while minimizing the economic and social impacts of a Covid Zero strategy. China’s manufacturing activity contracted in March, a period covering a lockdown in the tech hub of Shenzhen but not the full impact of the restrictions in Shanghai, meaning a further slowdown is likely.
The lockdown of just one half of the city forced Tesla Inc. to suspend production at its Gigafactory. Residents struggled to buy fresh food and have voiced frustrations at the difficulty in finding health care after some hospitals suspended services.

There are concerns that restrictions may not ease any time soon.
Late Wednesday, Shanghai’s communist party chief Li Qiang vowed to disrupt the spread of the virus through “whole-region static management”, using a phrase that in other parts of the country have indicated the toughest of movement curbs.
Several cities in the northeastern province of Jilin, already sealed off for more than two weeks, implemented static management last week that meant residents were completely barred from leaving their homes.

This week, people living in Shanghai’s Pudong district were told they shouldn’t walk in hallways or open areas of their residential compounds, not even to walk a pet. And on Thursday, officials urged people who live together to avoid sharing food and stay in separate rooms when conditions permit.
“It is particularly crucial to reduce mobility,” Wu Fan, vice dean of Shanghai Medical College at Fudan University and a Covid adviser for the Shanghai government, said at Thursday’s briefing. “The temporary standstill is to ensure we can get moving better and later and leave no chance for the virus to spread.”
Shanghai has emerged as the epicenter of China’s worst virus outbreak since the early days of the pandemic. The city’s daily infections shot up from less than five at the beginning of March to more than 5,600 on Thursday, though that’s a slight decline on Wednesday’s tally.
Officials at Thursday’s briefing also apologized for not being forceful enough in their early efforts, leading to omicron’s wider spread in the city.