China reported more than 20,000 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday (April 6), the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic, while millions have been closed since Shanghai begins a new phase of testing.
The country's "zero-COVID" strategy is under great pressure as cases increase, with nearly 25 million people in Shanghai - China's largest city and the engine room of the economy - being ordered to stay at home while authorities struggle to control the eruption.
In March, day-to-day cases in China remained short thanks to fast location locks, mass tests and strict international travel bans.
But the number of cases in recent weeks has reached thousands a day, with officials saying they have found a mutation in the more transmissible variant of Omicron.
The city closed residents in circles last week, sparking scenes of panic shopping and mass tests. However, the state television CCTV said that the city will launch a new round of tests on the entire population on Wednesday.
Shanghai is "testing its strength against the virus," senior city health official Wu Qianyu told a news conference on Wednesday, the latest warning from the authorities suggesting a high flow of locks could occur.
The city has turned a major national exhibition and convention center into a makeshift COVID-19 hospital for 40,000 people, the state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday, just days after setting up a temporary quarantine center at another fairground.
+ Extended Lockdown
China recorded 20,472 infected on Wednesday, the National Health Commission said in a statement.
This is the highest daily infection rate in the country reported by the authorities, even at the time of the first explosion in downtown Wuhan.
However, most cases are asymptomatic. Authorities have reported no new deaths in the country, which claims that only one person has died of the virus in almost two years.
However, China is struggling with short-term immunization, especially among the elderly, so long-term officials must maintain a balance between public health and the economy.
In Shanghai, quarantine facilities harass people with a positive test - even if they are asymptomatic - because city officials strictly follow viral protocols.
This involves separating COVID-positive children and children from parents with a negative test, a policy that arouses fear and sadness in troubled families.
City officials said Wednesday that parents of some pediatric patients with "special needs" were already allowed to keep their children positive for Covid. Meanwhile, anger escalated over fresh food shortages and limited movement among residents as officials reinforced what was originally intended as a brief lock.
Shanghai, China's largest city, accounts for more than 80 percent of the national census, city officials said Wednesday.
The High Representative of Shanghai agreed that the financial center was "not sufficiently prepared" for the explosion.
China, the country where the coronavirus was first discovered in downtown Wuhan at the end of 2019, is one of the last remaining areas since the zero COVID pandemic.
The epidemic took on a serious economic dimension, with China's manufacturing sector falling to a two-year low in March and services suffering a "dramatic drop in sales."
(Source: // AFP)