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China (16,412), Shanghai (13,146) report record daily Covid numbers
China Covid-19 cases: The Xi Jinping government, which insists on its ‘zero Covid’ strategy, sent thousands of health workers to help test Shanghai residents, some locked down for weeks.
China reported 16,412 Covid cases on Monday - its highest ever one-day figure after detecting 13,146 on Sunday - amid concern the resurgence in the world's second-largest economy faces could disrupt the global supply chain. The worrying surge in cases in China was driven by a record 13,354 cases in Shanghai alone, with the global financial hub of 25 million fighting to contain the omicron variant with stringent lockdown and mass testing. Shanghai reported 9,006 cases on Sunday.
The situation in Shanghai remains 'extremely grim', a city official told the Associated Press Tuesday.
The city was locked down over two phases the past week, with the western half following the eastern in facing some of the country's strictest restrictions and enforced mass testing drives.
The Chinese government sent over 10,000 health workers - including 2,000 from the military – to help test Shanghai residents, some of whom have been locked down for weeks.
READ: China sends in military to help with Shanghai virus outbreak
Shanghai officials have converted public spaces, like exhibition halls, into massive isolation centres where people with mild or no symptoms are monitored separated by temporary partitions.
However, as the city struggles to contain the virus, complaints have emerged about difficulties obtaining food and other essentials, as well as criticism over the quality of isolation centres.
Outrage has been fueled by the death of a nurse who was denied admittance to her own hospital because of Covid restrictions, and infant children separated from their parents.
Reuters spoke to Shanghai resident Esther Zhao, whose two-year-old daughter was forcibly separated because both had tested positive for Covid.
"There have been no photos at all...I'm so anxious, I have no idea what situation my daughter is in," she told Reuters through tears.
READ: Shanghai Covid cases top 13,000 as millions locked down
Despite these and other measures cases in Shanghai continue to increase - from nearly zero at the start of March. Since then more than 73,000 cases have been reported, AP estimates.
No deaths have been ascribed to the outbreak driven by the BA. 2, or 'stealth' variant of omicron, but two - China's first Covid-related deaths in over a year - were reported from Jilin province in January.
As in Shanghai, residents of other cities have faced similarly sweeping measures as the Xi Jinping government doubles down on a 'zero Covid' strategy that kept caseloads to a minimum till March.
But the 'stealth' omicron variant is proving to be a much harder nut to crack, as several other countries, including the United Kingdom have discovered.
Concerns are also being raised over new mutated versions of the coronavirus, including XE – the recombinant variant (BA.1+BA.2) first detected in the UK in January. The World Health Organization has warned XE (and others like it, including XD and XF) may be even more infectious than omicron.
READ: Global Covid cases top 490 million, concerns over XE variant | 5 points
With input from AP, Bloomberg, Reuters
