The authorities of Shanghai, the largest city and economic capital of China, announced this Wednesday that they will begin a round of massive tests in the coming days to determine which neighborhoods could gradually lift the confinement imposed since the beginning of the month, an initiative closely followed by Beijing residents, who fear a total lockdown in the face of a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.
According to the official report, This Wednesday, 14,222 new cases of coronavirus were reported -mostly asymptomatic- and 48 dead in the countrywhich is fighting the largest outbreak recorded since the start of the pandemic.
One of the main outbreaks affects Shanghai, where the deputy head of the local health committee, Zhao Dandan, reported this Wednesday that the city will carry out a new round of massive tests on its inhabitants to determine the districts with the lowest epidemiological risk.
Consequently, the areas that are declared “zero social Covid” -where there are only new infections in people under surveillance by the authorities or close contacts- could see a gradual lifting of restrictions.
In effect for almost a month, the total closure of Shanghai meant the quarantine of its more than 26 million residents, although last week the municipal authorities decided to relax home confinement so that more than 12 million can leave home, but without moving from their neighborhood.
These measures also had an impact on the flow of industrial products, which was interrupted by the suspension of access to the city, home to the busiest port in the world, and other industrial cities, such as Changchun and Jilin, located in the northeast of the country.
While, Beijing continues to carry out mass tests on millions of its residentsafter detecting new infections over the weekend.
According to official data, the city registered 34 new cases this Wednesday, three of which were asymptomatic.
Fearing the imposition of a full lockdown, residents began stockpiling food and supplies to avoid what the Shanghai population experienced, who struggled to have a continuous and reliable supply of groceries during the lockdown.
Although the local authorities guaranteed that they would ensure the supply of the shops, the demand has skyrocketed and the inhabitants share online lists of what they must store.
According to the Beijing Daily News, farms on the outskirts of the capital registered approximately a 20% increase in the number of orders compared to last year, due to the demand unleashed as a result of the outbreak, although some suppliers said that the increase was even older.
However, it is still unknown if the local authorities will impose a confinement in the capital. At the moment, only the specific areas where positive cases were found were closed.
