SHANGHAI, March 29, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Shanghai recorded a steep climb in
Covid-19 cases Tuesday as spreading anxiety in the Chinese city of about 25
million prompted panic-buying at supermarkets.
Millions endured a second day of lockdown after authorities effectively
split the country's biggest urban area in two, with residents of the city's
eastern half confined to their homes for four days and subjected to mandatory
testing.
China reported 6,886 domestic Covid cases nationwide on Tuesday, with more
than 4,400 of them detected in Shanghai, now the centre of the country's
worst Covid-19 outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.
Images showed some supermarket shelves in the city emptied of all goods.
"After being unable to grab any groceries this morning, I went back to
sleep, and all I dreamt about was buying food at the supermarket," one user
wrote on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.
"I'd never have thought that society today would be worried over buying
groceries."
In a bid to keep Shanghai's economy running, authorities have avoided the
hard lockdowns regularly deployed in other Chinese cities, instead opting for
rolling, localised restrictions.
The area locked down on Monday is the sprawling eastern district known as
Pudong, which includes the main international airport and glittering
financial centre.
The lockdown will last until Friday, then switch to the city's more
populated western Puxi section, home to the historic Bund riverfront.
The city's airports, railway stations and international shipping ports
remain operational, while key manufacturers are allowed to resume production
after a brief halt, state media reported.
China has largely kept virus outbreaks under control over the past two
years through strict zero-tolerance measures including mass lockdowns of
cities and provinces for even small numbers of cases.
But Omicron has proven harder to stamp out.
At a press briefing on Monday, health expert Wu Fan said it was "necessary
to take more resolute measures" to eliminate community transmission.
