Shanghai yesterday said it had detected no new daily COVID-19 cases outside quarantine areas, marking a key milestone in its battle to contain the virus, which has paralyzed the city of 25 million and put residents in Beijing on edge.
Restaurants across the capital would temporarily ban dining-in and residents would need clear COVID-19 tests to visit public spaces, officials said in a major ramp up of virus controls at the start of the five-day Labor Day long weekend.
In Shanghai, scenes of homes and buildings, where residents were confined to prevent them from leaving, have grabbed headlines in the past few weeks when most other countries in the world are learning to live with the virus.
Photo: Reuters
China maintains a “zero COVID” policy aimed at eradicating the disease, leading to anger and frustration for residents, cooped up for more than a month.
Shanghai officials did not discuss the milestone at their daily news conference on the numbers for Friday, but Chinese social media cheered, with the topic “Shanghai sees zero-COVID transmission at the community level” receiving more than 190,000 views on Sina Weibo yesterday morning.
“Shanghai has finally reached zero at the community level!!! May Shanghai wake up as soon as possible!!” one post read.
“There is hope that we can be released after the May holiday,” another said.
Friday’s zero cases outside quarantine areas in Shanghai compared with 108 for Thursday.
However, some cast doubt over the Shanghai milestone, saying that most of the city’s residents are locked in some form of quarantine.
Health authorities said that there were close to 16,000 sealed-off areas in Shanghai, with more than 4 million people prevented from leaving their homes.
A further 5.4 million people were blocked from leaving their compounds.
Shanghai reported 47 COVID-19 deaths for Friday, down from 52 a day earlier.
Beijing reported 48 daily symptomatic COVID-19 cases for Friday, compared with 47 the day before, Xinhua news agency said, adding that the city recorded six asymptomatic cases, versus two a day earlier.
Mainland China reported 10,793 daily COVID-19 cases, down from 15,688 new cases a day earlier, the Chinese National Health Commission said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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