Shanghai relaxes lockdown in selected zones

Shanghai on Monday relaxed strict lockdown in selected zones even as it again registered more than 26000 new locally transmitted cases with 914 symptomatic cases. Shanghai’s authorities have reclassified the city’s 16 districts according to the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak after six rounds of mass testing. A total of 7,565 areas have been declared “precautionary zones”, the lowest-risk category, because they recorded zero cases of the Omicron variant over the past 14 days.

Relaxation came amid local residents’ continuous complaints about over-kill approach by the authorities, which hampered the deliveries of food and daily essentials, disrupted supply chains, forcibly separated children from their parents and even led to the brutal killings of pets.

Chinese economist Lang Hsien-ping’s elderly mother died as she could not



receive treatment at a hospital due to non-availability of her Covid-19 test result even after waiting for four hours, according to his social media blog on Monday terming it as “avoidable tragedy”.

As COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai have disrupted daily life and the economy and left residents struggling to access food or medical care, citizens elsewhere in China are anxious about similar stringent measures even as officials seek to assure the public they are well prepared.

As news of Shanghai residents struggling to buy food spread across China, anxious prevailed among residents in other provinces who reportedly rushed to stockup daily provisions. Multiple “survival guides” have been shared on social media in the past few days as people in other parts of China observed the situation in Shanghai.