Shanghai to lift lockdown in some areas despite rise in COVID-19 infections
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Loading... - Karen Summers
- 11 Apr 2022
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Authorities in China’s financial center of Shanghai said they would start lifting lockdown in some areas from Monday, despite reporting more than 25,000 new COVID-19 infections, as they strive to get the city moving again after more than two weeks.
Shanghai has classed residential units into three risk categories, to allow those in areas without positive cases for a stretch of two weeks to engage in “appropriate activity” in their neighborhoods, city official Gu Honghui said.
“Each district will announce the specific names of the first batch (of communities) divided into the three types, and three subsequent lists will be announced in a timely manner,” he told a news briefing.
That promises relief for some of the city’s 25 million residents, many of whom struggled to find food and medicine after more than three weeks locked down in the battle on China’s biggest outbreak since coronavirus was first discovered in central Wuhan in late 2019.
Gu said Shanghai had divided the city into 7,624 areas that are still sealed off, a group of 2,460 now subject to “controls” after a week of no new infections, and 7,565 “prevention areas” that will be opened up after two weeks without a positive case.
Those living in “prevention areas,” though able to move around their neighborhoods, must observe social distancing and could find themselves sealed off again if there are new infections, he said.
Shanghai would make “dynamic” adjustments to the new system, Gu added, vowing greater efforts to minimize the impact of curbs on ordinary people in China’s most populous city.
“We also hope all citizens and friends will continue to support and cooperate,” he said.
Some criticized the move as a big risk at a time when Shanghai’s caseload exceeds 25,000, however. Read More…
