Shanghai to impose phased lockdown to fight Covid

Shanghai will launch a phased lockdown to curb an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 outbreak that has hit China with its highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic, the city government said Sunday.

China’s biggest city will lock down its eastern half for five days of testing beginning on Monday, the government said, followed by a similar lockdown of its western side beginning on April 1.

The metropolis of 25 million has in recent days become the leading hotspot in a nationwide outbreak that began to gain pace in early March.

Although recent case numbers remain insignificant in a global context, they are China’s highest since the first weeks of the pandemic, which first emerged in the city of Wuhan in late 2019.

China’s National Health Commission on Sunday reported more than 4,500 new domestically transmitted cases, down by more than 1,000 from the previous day but still far higher than the double-digit daily tallies usually seen over the past two years.

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