Shanghai orders snap COVID tests for 25 million locked-down residents

by Wenxin Fan | update 4月 04, 2022 02:25 EDT

City cases break record as Beijing mobilizes thousands of medical workers from across the country

Shanghai on Monday began testing all of its 25 million residents for Covid-19, aided by thousands of medical workers who flocked to the country over the weekend, with the entire city now effectively under a lockdown that has been taking its toll. Had to be on the last day.

As public anger and frustration grew over the government’s handling of the city’s worst Covid-19 outbreak, residents began queuing early in the morning to receive the first two rounds of nucleic acid tests.

China’s financial capital reported a record 9,006 Covid cases on Monday out of 13,137 new domestic infections across the country. On Saturday, the official leading the fight against the virus by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, arrived in the city to direct efforts to stamp out the outbreak, driven by the fast-spreading Omicron version.

“We will send all of our best forces,” Ms Sun told the official Xinhua news agency, using military terms as Beijing’s description of the antivirus measures in the war. “Speedness is the essence of war.”

Sticking to a policy calling for quarantine for all positive cases and close contacts, she started mobilizing more resources. In scenes reminiscent of Wuhan at the start of the pandemic in early 2020, thousands of doctors and nurses flocked to the city to get tested and help care for positive cases in government isolation facilities. The reinforcements include 7,200 doctors and nurses from Zhejiang province and 2,000 medical personnel from the People’s Liberation Army.

A Shanghai government press briefing cited footage circulated on social media showing the arrival of medical workers in long lines of buses. A team of nurses and doctors pledged to help Shanghai tide over the crisis before taking off from Hainan in southern China.

With most people testing positive without any symptoms, there is growing public dismay and anger, which many see as the city government’s heavy-handed policies that have brought life to a standstill, shuttered factories And many residents have struggled to find food. and access to medical services.

Shanghai had planned the lockdown in two phases, with half of the city’s residents confined to their homes at a time, depending on which side of the Huangpu River they lived. The first four-day lockdown of residents of the east and south of the river was to end on Friday. The second phase was to end at 3 am on Tuesday.

In fact, on Monday morning residents of both sides of the river were still seen under lockdown with no indication of when they would be freed.

City officials said they had already conducted 33 million tests during the two-phase lockdown, although the strategy has not yet shown it is bringing the outbreak under control.