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.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
RSS