Ns News Online Desk: Millions of people in China’s financial hub were confined to their homes on Monday as the eastern half of Shanghai went into lockdown to curb the country’s biggest ongoing Covid-19 outbreak. The move, announced late Sunday, caused a run on grocery stores by residents who have become exasperated with authorities’ inability to snuff out the outbreak despite nearly three weeks of increasingly disruptive measures.
Authorities are imposing a two-phase lockdown of the city of about 25 million people to carry out mass testing.
The government had sought to avoid the hard lockdowns regularly deployed in other Chinese cities, opting instead for rolling localized lockdowns to keep Shanghai’s economy running.
But Shanghai has in recent weeks become China’s Covid hotspot, and on Monday another record high was reported, with 3,500 new confirmed cases in the city. The area locked down on Monday is the sprawling eastern district known as Pudong, which includes the main international airport and glittering financial center.
The lockdown will last until Friday, then switch to the more populated western Puxi section, home to the historic Bund riverfront.
The government said the steps were being taken to root out infections “as soon as possible”.
The unpredictable neighborhood-level measures employed in recent weeks have left many citizens frustrated with repeated brief confinements at home. Some complained Monday that only several hours’ notice was given for the new, larger lockdown.
