Shanghai’s vice mayor admitted to shortcomings in the city’s handling of its COVID-19 outbreak, as a record 23,600 new cases were reported yesterday, while the US allowed nonessential staff and their families to leave its consulate in the city.
Shanghai Deputy Mayor Zong Ming (宗明) praised the support from the public and the work of frontline workers despite public criticism of strict curbs, but said the handling of the virus needed to improve.
“We feel the same way about the problems everyone has raised and voiced,” Zong told a daily briefing. “A lot of our work has not been enough, and there’s still a big gap from everyone’s expectations. We will do our best to improve.”
Photo: Reuters
Beijing intervened after the failure of Shanghai’s initial effort to isolate the virus by locking down in stages, insisting that the country stick to its zero-tolerance policy to prevent its medical system from being overwhelmed.
Elsewhere yesterday, the southern megacity of Guangzhou — home to more than 18 million people — said it would begin testing in all 11 of its districts, after cases were reported there on Friday.
In Shanghai, where 26 million people are in lockdown, residents have continued to complain about food shortages due to a lack of couriers and uncertainty about when lockdown curbs may end.
The government said it would conduct more testing yesterday and would ease some movement curbs.
Some residents of housing compounds with no recent cases said they had been notified by their neighborhood committees that they could leave their homes to stroll within their compounds.
It did not signal a change of approach.
“The epidemic prevention and control is now at the most critical moment, and we cannot tolerate the slightest slack,” Zong said.
Shanghai Municipal Commerce Commission Director Gu Jun (顧軍) acknowledged problems in distributing food supplies and said distribution centers, supermarkets and pharmacies should continue operating online as much as possible.
E-commerce company JD.com yesterday said it had obtained a license to deliver goods into Shanghai and hosted a livestreaming sales session joined by more than 3.5 million people.
Offered products were sold out within seconds and the hosts repeatedly pleaded for patience in response to commentators who complained that they were unable to purchase.
An official also addressed reports of patients recovering from COVID-19, but not being allowed to return to their compounds by neighborhood committees, emphasizing that there was no evidence of any risk from those that had been discharged.
On Friday, the US Department of State said in a travel advisory it was allowing nonemergency staff and their families to leave the Shanghai consulate due to the surge in cases and the impact of restrictions.
It advised US citizens to reconsider travel to China “due to arbitrary enforcement of local laws and COVID-19 restrictions.”
Of Shanghai’s newly reported cases, 1,015 were recorded as symptomatic, while 22,609 were asymptomatic.
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