Shanghai expands lockdown as cases jump by a third

SHANGHAI • The Chinese authorities began locking down some western areas of Shanghai yesterday, two days ahead of schedule, as new Covid-19 cases in China's most populous city jumped by a third despite stringent curbs already in place to try to stop the coronavirus spreading.

Home to 26 million people, China's financial hub is in its third day of a lockdown that officials are imposing by dividing the city roughly along the Huangpu River, splitting the historic centre west of the river from the eastern financial and industrial district of Pudong to allow for staggered mass tests.

While residents in the east have been locked down since Monday, those in the west were originally scheduled to start their four-day lockdown tomorrow. Several residents living in western districts on Tuesday received notice from their housing committees that they would be stopped from leaving their compounds for the next seven days.

Locking down a major metropolis like Shanghai full-scale would result in a 4 per cent reduction in the national real gross domestic product, economists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University and other institutes estimated in mid-March.

Shanghai reported a record 5,656 asymptomatic Covid-19 cases and 326 symptomatic cases for Tuesday, up from 4,381 new asymptomatic cases and 96 new cases with symptoms on Monday.

The Shanghai authorities said yesterday that since the lockdown began on Monday they had conducted 9.1 million nucleic acid tests. They also said they were starting to disinfect places such as office buildings, construction sites, wet markets and schools in a month-long campaign.

The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account late on Tuesday that those who refused to comply with nucleic acid testing could be found legally liable.

Meanwhile, Chinese companies have halted a wave of planned domestic initial public offerings, filings show, as the current case surge hampered due diligence and information gathering - affecting an estimated fund raising of more than US$9 billion (S$12 billion).

Across mainland China, the daily numbers of new local infections in the past two weeks were much higher than those seen in the first two months of this year, marking the biggest case wave since the 2020 one centred on Wuhan.

The eastern city of Xuzhou, which reported a total of fewer than 20 local infections in the past week, has imposed a three-day lockdown in most areas starting yesterday.

The Xuzhou government said that each household in those areas should send only one person to shop for necessities every other day, while non-essential companies should either shut operations, have employees work from home or operate in a closed-loop manner.

Shanghai's growing Covid-19 outbreak is causing desperation among residents with chronic medical conditions who depend on the increasingly overwhelmed healthcare system, as even getting to regular appointments becomes nearly impossible.

The local authorities in Shanghai are stressing that emergency medical needs will be met during the lockdown, after stories about lack of access for heart attack patients and pregnant women who were miscarrying went viral elsewhere in China. The people who rely on regular care, however, are struggling with halted transportation, scarce resources and lack of communication between hospitals and the communities they serve.

The number of people asking for medical help on China's Twitter-like Weibo has rocketed in Shanghai recently. Kidney disease patients who need dialysis and the parents of children with high fevers, among others, are seeking to raise awareness of their plight in hopes of getting medical care.

China's approach has broad domestic support, and many see its approach as successful. But given the vast majority of cases in Shanghai have thus far been without symptoms, there have been calls to re-examine the feasibility of "dynamic clearance" in the city given the strain on public resources.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG