Shanghai Covid-19 cases drop below 50 in sign flareup under control

SHANGHAI (BLOOMBERG) - Shanghai reported the fewest new Covid-19 cases in a week for Wednesday (July 13), with all infected people already in government-run quarantine, a sign the financial hub may avoid tighter restrictions as the outbreak comes under control.

The city recorded 47 infections for Wednesday, down from 55 on Tuesday.

While daily cases have jumped from single digits last week, they are no longer rising precipitously.

Still, concern Shanghai could be headed for another citywide lockdown - with a number of apartment blocks and neighbourhoods already subject to movement restrictions - remains.

That angst was fuelled Monday by two neighbourhood committees issuing an open letter calling on residents to stockpile enough food and medical supplies to last 14 days, according to reports carried in media outlets including eastday.com Tuesday night.

Speculation a wide-ranging lockdown is coming coursed through China's social media platforms earlier in the week, spurring the government to say the claims were false and "pure rumours" on its official WeChat account.

Some online claimed that a phased lockdown, akin to the first stage of Shanghai's move in March, could be imposed once high school entrance exams slated for this week had been completed.

The anxiety mirrored concerns in Beijing in May, when online rumours of a lockdown there saw residents flocking to grocery stores and hoarding food.

Even as the rest of the world moves to live alongside the virus, lockdowns remain commonplace in China, which continues to stick to a policy of keeping out the virus with stringent curbs.

The zero-Covid strategy is leaving the country isolated as travel barriers fall elsewhere, and is impacting the world's second-largest economy, with lockdowns and restrictions affecting the operations of traders to manufacturers.

But President Xi Jinping remains undeterred, doubling down on the policy in an address last month.

Shanghai's spike in infections after weeks of few cases comes after the detection of the more contagious BA.5 sub-strain of the Omicron variant.

Nine of the city's 16 districts are currently undergoing mass testing in response, along with other areas where cases have been found.

While denying rumours of an imminent lockdown, officials said the directive to stockpile food and medicines was aimed at "stimulating people's epidemic prevention awareness," according to the reports.

Shanghai's flareup is just one of the resurgent outbreaks China is currently grappling with. Nationwide, 292 cases were recorded Wednesday. 

Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province in north-western China, shifted into a full lockdown Wednesday with its more than 4 million residents ordered to stay in their homes.

One person from each household is allowed to go out once a day for essentials.

The province reported 100 new cases for Wednesday – with 86 in Lanzhou –  a number that is dwarfed by the caseloads seen in other parts of the world right now, but is the highest tally in China.  

The outbreak is "on the rise" in the city and community spread has already occurred, Mr Yang Dezhi, Lanzhou’s deputy mayor, said at a press conference Thursday.

Wugang, a steel and iron-making city of some 300,000 inhabitants in Henan Province, announced a lockdown on Tuesday after finding a single Covid case. The province found 30 new cases on Wednesday.

Zhuhai, which neighbours Macau, has shut all kindergartens and entertainment venues in the Xiangzhou district after a cluster emerged at a kindergarten, infecting 35 people as of July 13. Some compounds in the district have also been locked down and residents ordered to stay at home.

As of Monday, some 30 million people across China were under some form of movement restrictions to quell transmission, but authorities have so far steered clear of strict lockdowns in key economic regions.