China: More than 23,000 Covid cases logged in Shanghai, more cities announce curbs
Shanghai continues to be the epicentre of the ongoing outbreak with no sign of the lockdown being eased. Millions in the city remain confined to their homes and in some areas residents have been locked down for over three weeks.
BEIJING: Shanghai on Saturday reported 3,590 new symptomatic Covid-19 cases, the highest daily increase, and nearly 20,000 asymptomatic infections for April 15 as more big cities in China implemented restrictions on movement and partial lockdowns to contain the Omicron-driven outbreak.
Shanghai continues to be the epicentre of the ongoing outbreak with no sign of the lockdown being eased.
Millions in the city remain confined to their homes and in some areas residents have been locked down for over three weeks.
The financial hub’s Covid-19 case tally made up the vast majority of cases on the mainland, which reported 3,867 symptomatic and 20,813 asymptomatic infections for Friday.
As of Friday, the city has recorded over 330,000 infections in this round of outbreak.
China’s central bank on Friday evening cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, aiming to cushion a sharp slowdown in growth.
“The lingering and widening restrictions highlight broad supply chain disruptions that are seen likely to lead to delays in shipments from companies including Apple,” Reuters reported.
“Due to the slowdown of road transport caused by the Covid-19 outbreaks, a growing number of enterprises in Shanghai and Suzhou are transferring containers by water through a green channel promoted by the Taicang and Shanghai ports,” official news agency Xinhua reported.
The outlook could get worse with more cities like Xian in northwestern China telling its residents on Friday to avoid unnecessary trips outside their residential compounds and encouraging companies to have employees work from home or live at their workplace, following dozens of Covid-19 infections this month.
The city of some 13 million experienced one of the longest pandemic-related lockdowns in China in January.
The historic city, which is also a major tourism draw, had confined residents from December 22 until January 24 after the discovery of a Covid-19 cluster that grew to over 2,100 cases, which was then China’s largest local outbreak in months.
The Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone, a central Chinese manufacturing area that includes Apple supplier Foxconn, announced a 14-day lockdown on Friday “to be adjusted according to the epidemic situation”.
Suzhou city in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, located about an hour’s drive from Shanghai, stepped up epidemic prevention and control measures starting from Saturday, after successive positive cases were found among migrant workers in the area around the Suzhou railway station.
“Residents were told to stay at home if there was no emergency so as to reduce social mobility and quickly cut the infection chain,” the state-run Global Times reported on Saturday.
