SHANGHAI, April 6, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - China reported more than 20,000 Covid-19

cases on Wednesday, the highest daily tally given since the start of the
pandemic, as millions in locked-down Shanghai began a new round of testing.

The country's "zero-Covid" strategy has come under immense strain as cases
spike, with around 25 million residents of Shanghai -- China's largest city
and economic engine room -- ordered to stay-at-home as the authorities
struggle to contain the outbreak.

Until March, China had kept daily cases low with snap localised lockdowns,
mass testing, and strict restrictions on international travel.

But the caseload has hit thousands per day in recent weeks, with Shanghai
driving the surge of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The city locked down its residents in phases last week, prompting scenes of
panic-buying and mass testing.

But state broadcaster CCTV reported that the city will launch a fresh round
of tests on the entire population on Wednesday.

Shanghai is "testing its strength against the virus," senior city health
official Wu Qianyu said at a press conference Wednesday, the latest dour
warning from authorities suggesting a long run in lockdown may be ahead.

The city is converting its landmark National Exhibition and Convention Center
into a makeshift Covid hospital for 40,000 people, state news agency Xinhua
reported Wednesday, just days after setting up a temporary quarantine centre
in another expo hall.

- Extended lockdown -

China recorded 20,472 infections on Wednesday, the National Health Commission
said in a statement.

It is the country's highest-ever daily infection number given by authorities,
even during the peak of the initial outbreak which centred around Wuhan.

The majority of the cases are, however, asymptomatic.

Authorities reported no new deaths, in a country which says only one person
has died of the virus in nearly two years.

Yet China faces low vaccination rates, especially among the elderly, leaving
officials with a high-wire act of balancing maintaining public health with
keeping the economy moving.

In Shanghai quarantine facilities are bulging with people who test positive -
- even if they are asymptomatic -- as city officials stick rigidly to virus
protocols.

Those include separating Covid-positive babies and children from parents who
test negative, a policy that has stirred anxiety and anguish from worried
families.

City officials said on Wednesday that parents of some child patients with
"special needs" would now be allowed to remain with their Covid-positive
children.

Meanwhile anger over lack of fresh food and curtailed movements is rising
among residents as officials extend what was originally intended to be a
short lockdown.

Shanghai, China's largest city, accounted for more than 80 percent of the
national tally, city officials said on Wednesday.

A top Shanghai official has conceded that the financial hub had been
"insufficiently prepared" for the outbreak.

China, the country where the coronavirus was first detected in the central
city of Wuhan in late 2019, is among the last remaining places following a
zero-Covid approach to the pandemic.

The outbreak has taken on an increasingly serious economic dimension, with
China's factory output falling to its lowest in two years in March and
services activity suffering a "notable drop in sales," according to
independent indices released by Chinese media group Caixin.