Shanghai tomorrow is to lock down a district of 2.7 million people to conduct mass testing for COVID-19, city authorities said yesterday, as the Chinese metropolis struggles to fully emerge from punishing curbs.
The city eased many restrictions last week, after confining most of its 25 million residents to their homes since March as China battled its worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years.
However, the lockdown was never fully lifted, with hundreds of thousands in China’s biggest city still restricted to their homes and multiple residential compounds put under fresh stay-at-home orders.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The southwestern district of Minhang, home to 2.7 million people, would be placed under “closed management” tomorrow morning and all residents would be tested, district authorities said in a social media post.
“The closure would be lifted after the samples have been collected,” they said, without giving a specific time or date.
The statement also did not say what measures would be imposed if any district residents test positive.
Under China’s “zero COVID-19” approach, all positive cases are isolated and close contacts — often including the entire building or community where they live — are made to quarantine.
Shanghai reported nine new local infections yesterday, with none of them in Minhang.
The district’s announcement sparked fear among some social media users that the lockdown could be prolonged if any cases are found.
“You need to clarify if [the lockdown] will really be lifted after samples are collected,” one person wrote.
“If there are abnormal results after the tests, what will you do? Continue the lockdown?” another asked.
The city government denied rumours that the rest of the city would lock down again in phases, saying that while individual areas had issued confinement orders, the city as a whole was “gradually resuming normal production and life.”
The lockdown in Shanghai — a major global shipping hub — had threatened to pile further pressure on already-strained international supply chains.
However, the city has slowly come back to life in the past few days.
Commuters are back on subways and buses as people return to working in their offices, while residents have gathered in parks and along the city’s waterfront.
However, others are chafing under continued restrictions, with residents in one compound in Xuhui District protesting against the rules this week.
‘CHINESE ASSET’: The senate cited Bamban Mayor Alice Guo in contempt after a police raid revealed a scam center operating at a facility on land she partially owned The Philippine Senate yesterday threatened to arrest a mayor for contempt during a hearing investigating her alleged ties to Chinese criminal syndicates. The arrest threat came after Bamban Mayor Alice Guo (郭華萍) failed to appear for a second consecutive hearing, citing stress. The case that began in March, when authorities raided a casino in Guo’s farming town of Bamban, has shed light on criminal activity in the mostly Chinese-backed online casino industry in the Philippines. It gained national attention after one senator asked whether Guo might not have been born in the Philippines and could even be a Chinese “asset,” an accusation she
‘DO WHATEVER’: US Representative Nancy Pelosi said on MSNBC the decision was up to Joe Biden, but her lack of a full statement backing him is likely to send a signal The re-election campaign of US President Joe Biden on Wednesday hit new trouble as US Representative Nancy Pelosi said merely “it’s up to the president to decide” if he should stay in the race, celebrity donor George Clooney said he should not run, and Democratic senators and lawmakers expressed fresh fear about his ability to challenge former US president Donald Trump. Late in the evening, US Senator Peter Welch called on Biden to withdraw from the election, becoming the first Senate Democrat to do so. Welch said he is worried because “the stakes could not be higher.” The sudden flurry of pronouncements, despite
‘STARWARS’: The weapons would make South Korea the first country to deploy and operate laser weapons, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said South Korea is to deploy laser weapons to shoot down North Korean drones this year, becoming the world’s first country to deploy and operate such weapons in the military, the country’s arms procurement agency said yesterday. South Korea has called its laser program the “StarWars project.” The drone-zapping laser weapons that the South Korean military has developed with Hanwha Aerospace are effective and cheap, with each shot costing 2,000 won (US$1.45), and also quiet and “invisible,” the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement. “Our country is becoming the first country in the world to deploy and operate laser weapons, and
US ELECTIONS: US President Joe Biden mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Zelenskiy as Russian President Vladimir Putin at a NATO summit on Thursday US President Joe Biden vowed he would remain in this year presidential race, but two critical mistakes in the span of two hours deepened concerns about his mental acuity that threaten his campaign. Biden, 81, saw the culmination of this week’s NATO summit as a chance to reassure allies who for two weeks had fretted about his abilities following his first debate performance against former US president Donald Trump. Over a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and a nearly hour-long news conference, he spoke confidently on a range of complex issues from the tax code and trade policy to