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China sees record cases in March as Shanghai expands lockdown
China logged more than 70,000 domestic Covid-19 cases in March, the National Health Commission said, the largest number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020
China logged a record number of domestic Covid-19 cases in March, health authorities said on Tuesday, even as the financial hub of Shanghai expands its lockdown in an attempt to curb rising infections.
China logged more than 70,000 domestic Covid-19 cases in March, the National Health Commission said, the largest number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Experts said the infections were mostly caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant and its sub-variant, BA.2, with 28 provincial-level regions affected.
“Epidemiologists said that such a rapid increase in cases in this short time frame indicates the difficulty of quashing this wave quickly and returning the country to a state of zero-Covid as has been the case with previous waves,” a report in the state-run Global Times said.
In Shanghai, home to nearly 25 million people, authorities on Wednesday began locking down some western areas two days ahead of schedule after the city reported a record 5,656 asymptomatic and 326 symptomatic Covid-19 cases for March 29.
Shanghai residents the east of the Huangpu river have been locked down since Monday, while those in the west were previously scheduled to start their four-day lockdown on Friday.
By 10am on Wednesday, around 9.1 million residents had undergone nucleic acid testing in many areas of the city, including those on the east of the Huangpu River that are under lockdown, Wu Qianyu, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.
Another 10.87 million residents had taken antigen testing to screen for Covid-19 by Wednesday morning.
Shanghai announced that starting Wednesday it will carry out a large-scale disinfection in key places for a month, including office buildings, construction sites, transport vehicles, farm markets, and residential communities, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
City authorities have converted the vast Shanghai World Expo Centre (SWEC) into a venue to quarantine mild cases and asymptomatic carriers amid the latest Covid-19 surge. It will provide more than 15,000 beds for patients.
The Chinese government is attempting to limit the economic blow of Shanghai’s lockdown on trade and business and has announced 21 measures to help enterprises affected by Covid-19 to cut losses.
“Preliminary estimates show that tax-related measures alone can reduce the burden on related industries and enterprises in Shanghai by about 140 billion yuan (about $22 billion) in 2022,” Xinhua reported.
“The measures also aim to provide stronger support for those affected by Shanghai’s latest virus resurgence,” Ruan Qing from the Shanghai government said.
However, frustration is growing among Shanghai residents over the strict Covid restrictions.
One video shared on Chinese social media showed an angry exchange between a group of patients and a health care worker in a hazmat suit at the SWEC.
“We demand an explanation,” the person filming the video is heard saying, Reuters reported.
“There’s repeated cross-infection here,” the person said, adding “There’s no water in the toilet.”
Residents who have been forced to quarantine in makeshift centres have complained about their condition. The camps are crowded with upto 2,500 beds grouped together in some, and with so many people in the same place, hygiene conditions have suffered.
Overall, the Chinese mainland reported 8,655 local Covid-19 cases for Tuesday of which at least 1,565 were symptomatic and the rest asymptomatic infections.
Of the new local symptomatic infections, the largest 1150 were reported from the northeastern province of Jilin.
