China's largest city, Shanghai, launched a two-phase lockout on Monday as authorities tried several methods to stop growth while trying to control the country's worst Covid-19 epidemic since the start of the pandemic.
Shanghai, a city of 26 million people on the southeast coast of China, is the country's financial and international trade center. The city is also home to the largest container port in the world.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange remains in operation. The stock exchange announced on Sunday evening that applications for the issue of shares and other paperwork can be submitted online, if necessary with breaks. City-wide exclusion measures include orders to work from home, such as stopping public trips and marches, the city of Shanghai announced on Sunday evening. Previously, there were only certain neighborhoods with temporary locks to control explosions.
The first phase will take place from Monday to Friday morning and will be available in the eastern part of the city, where the financial center is located, the city said. The second phase will be available in the western part of the city and will last from Friday morning to the afternoon of the following Tuesday, April 5, municipalities said.
"The closed and mandatory test district in China's largest city, major transportation hub and financial center is likely to disrupt the city's business," said Bruce Pang, head of macro research. and the strategy of the Chinese Renaissance. "We believe that China will maintain its zero tolerance approach in the short term and promote the position of zero covid as one of the strictest virus eradication policies in the world," Pang said.
Tesla, whose plant in Shanghai is located in the area covered by the first phase of the closure, would stop production for at least one day, according to sources, according to Bloomberg. The electric vehicle company did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
The advent of a more portable variant of omicron has made outbreaks more difficult and increased uncertainty for business operations. Local governments across China attribute the latest wave of cases to the Omicron subvariant BA.2.
China maintains a blocking and quarantine strategy to control Covid attacks as they grow economically. This policy helped the country recover from the first pandemic shock in early 2020, with relatively fewer infections and deaths compared to other parts of the world.
Economists currently do not expect the exclusions to last just a week or more to have a significant impact on the national economy throughout the year. Travel restrictions and home living measures will affect consumer spending and services more than factory production, as workers will often stay in industrial parks.
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In Shanghai, officials in recent weeks have stressed how the city will not stop and instead use a neighborhood-specific approach. Even with Sunday's announcement, the city agreed to a two-part exclusion for testing for batch viruses. Shanghai International Port Group, which manages the city's ports, said in an online statement on Monday that in addition to bad weather, the production units will continue to operate 24 hours a day.
And instead of a total ban on traveling to and from Shanghai during the two-phase lockout, authorities say people who want to leave the city by highway, train or plane must have a negative virus test within 48 hours of departure.
Two Shanghai airports, including one for international travel, and three train stations are still operating normally, the city's transportation agency said Monday morning.
Elevation in asymptomatic cases
Newly confirmed cases in the village remain high, with a higher number of asymptomatic cases.
Shanghai reported 3,450 asymptomatic cases on Sunday, the largest of all provinces at the regional level in mainland China. The city reported 50 newly confirmed Covid cases on the same day.
All 3,500 affected people are on isolated treatment or isolated medical observation, the city said.
The latest update of Covid's National Prevention and Control Policy of 15 March states that mild and asymptomatic cases can be dealt with in quarantine centers, rather than requiring quarantine care. hospitals to add to the existing Chinese health care system.
Across the country, the northern province of Jilin was well placed for most newly confirmed cases - 1,086 out of 1,219 reported to the mainland on Sunday. Although the latest wave of Covid has hit provinces in China, the number of newly confirmed cases per day in most regions is less than 10. The capital, Beijing, did not report any new locally transmitted confirmed cases as asymptomatic cases on Sunday.
As a sign of the authorities' efforts to limit travel across the country, the Chinese national train carrier announced on Saturday that passengers could not book tickets on April 8 or for future dates. Sales for later seasons are scheduled to begin on April 2, the rail operator said.