Hong Kong, Europe Brief News – Shanghai’s COVID-19 lockdown continues to cause havoc for its 25 million residents with many struggling to get basic necessities due to China’s strict zero-tolerance policy.
More than 22,000 COVID cases were recorded over the weekend – making up 95% of mainland china’s new Covid cases. There have been around 320,000 cases in the country’s richest city, China’s worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic.
Three deaths were reported on Monday, of people between the ages of 89 and 91.
Those who test positive are placed in government isolation centres even if they are asymptomatic.
Many locals have complained that some of these isolation centres do not comply with minimum hygiene conditions, cold temperatures and leaky rooves.
The country has been trying to tackle its biggest coronavirus outbreak in two years as first COVID-19 deaths reported since January 2021.
Two deaths were recorded in the northeastern province of Jilin, the epicentre of an Omicron-fuelled wave of cases.
The deaths bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.
China reported 4,051 new cases on Saturday, down from 4,365 the day before, the National Health Commission said.
The country where the coronavirus first emerged in late 2019 has largely curbed its spread thanks to a combination of border controls, lengthy quarantines and strict lockdowns targeted mostly on buildings where cases have been confirmed but sometimes involving entire neighbourhoods, towns and cities.
With the Omicron variant proving the biggest test yet of the country’s “zero-COVID” strategy, tens of millions of people across the country are living under stay-home orders.
