Coronavirus: Shanghai’s Covid-19 cases soar by a daily record of 13,354, offering no end in sight for citywide lockdown in China’s financial hub
- The number of infections was the highest one-day tally, with 268 cases showing symptoms on Monday, compared with 425 a day earlier
- Still, the city of 25 million residents took no chances, undergoing a citywide mass testing exercise over three days
Shanghai added a record 13,354 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, boosting the national caseload to its highest since the disease’s outbreak, underscoring why authorities in China’s commercial hub are in no hurry to lift a citywide lockdown.
Authorities kept the city of 25 million residents locked down, after mass testing found 73,000 infections since March 1. The local government reversed its earlier plan to lift the lockdown on Puxi on Tuesday.
The 13,354 infections was the highest one-day increase, topping the previous one-day high of 9,006 on Monday, translating into more than 33 times Shanghai’s total infections before the latest round of outbreak.
The vast majority of Shanghai’s infections were asymptomatic, with 268 symptomatic cases on Monday, compared with 425 a day earlier. Still, the authorities were taking no chances with the highly transmissible Omicron variant, vowing to track down, quarantine and deal with every single case to achieve what the government calls a “dynamic zero” Covid-19 policy.
“Once confirmed, all new cases will be transferred [to designated quarantine sites],” the Shanghai government’s Deputy Secretary General Gu Honghui said at a media briefing on Tuesday. “All new infections must be settled day by day, and no one should be left unattended.”
