Shanghai assured on Tuesday that it had managed to eliminate covid infections in all its districts among the population that is not complying with quarantine, causing sarcasm and misunderstanding because millions of people remain confined in China’s largest city.
The Asian giant is facing the largest covid outbreak since the start of the pandemic and imposed harsh restrictions in early April to eradicate infections in line with its “zero covid” strategy.
While most countries in the world accept coexistence with the virus, the Chinese government maintains this policy consisting of massive confinements, quarantine isolation of infected and positive people, and massive tests.
In Shanghai, the lockdown of its 25 million inhabitants since the beginning of April sparked unusual protests against the authority in the face of prolonged confinement and food shortages and distribution problems.
“Shanghai’s 16 districts have already achieved zero COVID at the community level,” Zhao Dandan, deputy director of municipal health services, told reporters on Tuesday.
This means that the nearly 1,000 infections recorded on Tuesday were detected in quarantine facilities where contacts of those infected are isolated, not among the general population.
Deputy Mayor Chen Tong announced Sunday that a phased reopening will begin this week, without specifying a timetable.
According to the mayor’s office, only 3.8 million inhabitants remain under a harsh form of confinement, such as the prohibition to leave their apartment or residential complex.
But this figure aroused incredulity from many Internet users who considered that many more people are still locked up.
“If the society achieved a Covid-zero level, why can people in Songjiang District only go out every other day?” said a Weibo user.
“Are the Shanghai authorities talking about a parallel universe?” wrote another on the same platform.
Resumption of trains and planes
In some areas, however, the relaxation of restrictions is evident.
Chinese media released images on Tuesday of a crowd of people queuing outside one of Shanghai’s main railway stations after service resumed.
Several airlines also resumed domestic flights out of Shanghai this week after suspending them during the outbreak.
However, the inhabitants cannot leave the city without an authorization and after undergoing various tests.
The Chinese authorities show no willingness to ease their covid control policy despite the economic cost to trade, tourism, vehicle sales or the labor market.
This strategy allowed China to contain the virus and live almost completely normally since controlling the first wave of the virus in 2020, but outbreaks have multiplied in recent months.
The zeal is even greater after the announcement on Monday of the detection in a traveler from Kenya of a first case of the BA.2.12.1 subvariant, which is considered particularly contagious and is widespread in the United States.
The capital Beijing practices daily tests on a large part of its 22 million inhabitants, who fear being under a harsh confinement like in Shanghai.
Although they only detect a few dozen cases a day, the city has closed restaurants, bars, gyms, parks and has imposed teleworking.
