Shanghai Covid-19 cases plateau as some residents urged to stockpile food

SHANGHAI (BLOOMBERG) - Shanghai's Covid-19 cases appear to be levelling off following a recent spike, though some residents have been urged to stockpile food and medicines as the fear of returning to lockdown hangs over the city.

The financial hub reported 55 new infections for Tuesday (July 12), compared with 59 on Monday.

While daily cases have jumped sharply from single digits last week, they are no longer rising precipitously, and the latest infections were all found in people who have already been quarantined, a compulsory measure for all cases and their close contacts in China.

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 neighborhood 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 Covid Zero 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.

Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province in northwestern 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 69 new cases for Tuesday, a number that is dwarfed by the caseloads seen in other parts of the world right now, but is the highest tally in China.

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-19 case.

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.