Shanghai reported nearly 25,000 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections yesterday, as residents of China’s most populous city voiced complaints over food and basic supplies, and concern spread that more cities might soon be in the same situation.
Streets of the locked-down financial hub of 26 million people remained as curbs under the city’s “zero tolerance” policy allow only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery personnel or those with special permission to go out.
Shanghai’s case numbers are small compared to some cities globally, but it is battling China’s worst COVID-19 outbreak since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in 2019.
Photo: Bloomberg
Of the local cases Shanghai reported, 1,006 were symptomatic while 23,937 were classed as asymptomatic.
The city has become a test bed for China’s elimination strategy, which seeks to test, trace and centrally quarantine all people who test positive for the virus to stem its spread.
The curbs have sharply squeezed supplies of food and other essentials. Many supermarkets have been shut and thousands of couriers locked in. Access to medical care has also been a concern.
Online videos show residents struggling with security personnel and hazmat-suited medical staff at some compounds in recent days, with occupants shouting that they need food.
Executives for e-commerce giants JD.com and food delivery service Ele.me attended the city’s daily briefing, seeking to convince residents that bottlenecks would soon ease.
JD.com vice president Wang Wenbo (王文博) said he understands concerns about delivery speed and that the company is focusing on basic foodstuffs and baby care items.
Ele.me senior vice president Xiao Shuixian (肖水賢) said his company had brought in 2,800 more delivery workers over the past week.
Social media users in several other cities expressed anxiety that their cities might also go into lockdown, with screenshots shared of maps showing various highways closed across the country.
Many of the closures could be due to local governments implementing their own measures.
The Chinese Ministry of Transport on Saturday said it met with other government departments to work on standardizing highway pandemic checkpoints as restrictions at the local level were causing congestion for critical supplies.
An unverified video circulating on social media appeared to show trucks departing Shanghai being scanned with hand-held detectors to ensure that no one was trying to leave the city hidden inside.
Beijing’s municipal government placed a high-risk area under lockdown on Saturday after eight COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the past two weeks, Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control deputy director Pang Xinghuo (龐星火) said.
Guangzhou, home to more than 18 million people, said on Saturday that it would begin testing across its 11 districts after cases were reported on Friday.
Ningbo, a key port city near Shanghai, said yesterday it was closing all indoor dining at restaurants and hotels, and that people who had been in confined spaces would undergo daily testing for three days.
Social media users in Shanghai posted recommendations for people in other cities in case of lockdown, saying to stock up with basic cooking equipment, seasonings and staple dried foods such as rice and pasta.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS