From April 1st, it will be the west of the Chinese metropolis that will be put under bell to cope with the Omicron wave, which accelerates.
Le Monde
It’s a confinement in two stages. Half of Shanghai is put under bell, from Monday, March 28, at the moment when the Chinese economic capital of 25 million people faced its worst soaring Covid-19 for two years. The Shanghaia people living in the east of the city are confined to the April 1 sup> at 5 o’clock in the morning at home, with prohibition. At that date, it will be the turn of the western part.
The announcement of this measure, Sunday evening, provoked an influx of the inhabitants in supermarkets. Many of them are tired of the impotence of the authorities to curb epidemic outbreak despite several weeks of restrictions. “We really do not understand the anti-epidemic measures of the town hall. There is a lack of consistency, says a 59-year-old man who is queeling to buy food products. After all this time, the city still does not have to control the virus and the numbers continue to climb. “
For the town hall, this two-phase confinement aims to accelerate the screening of the population and to overcome new infections “as soon as possible”. Until then, Shanghai had attempted to avoid total confinement, very detrimental to the economy, rather trying to minimize disturbances with a more targeted approach: confines of forty-eight hours of buildings or residential complexes.
3,500 new positive cases
The metropolis has become in recent days the epicenter of a new wave of contaminations, linked to the Omicron variant of the SARS-COV-2, which began to accelerate at the beginning of March and puts strain the strategy. Chinese “zero Covid”. The Ministry of Health has reported Monday 3,500 new positive cases in Shanghai.
The confined party this Monday is that of Pudong, district that includes the city’s international airport and the famous business district with its immense and emblematic skyscrapers. From Friday, it will be Puxi, the west half of Shanghai, which will be bell. It includes the famous historic artery of the Bund, on the edge of the Huangpu River, which crosses the city. The town hall did not appear in the immediate future what would be the consequences on the airports of Shanghai and its maritime port.
China has largely eradicated the epidemic since 2020 thanks to quarantines on arrival on the territory, tracing moving by mobile applications and cities confinements, sometimes decreed after only a handful of cases. But Omicron hurts Zero Covid: The Ministry of Health has identified the last two weeks of thousands of new daily cases. A very low level at the global but high level for China, where the number of new daily contaminations rarely exceeds the figure of 100 since the spring 2020.
Shenzen output of the containment
In recent weeks, millions of inhabitants of affected areas, across the country, have been subjected to confines, such as the Shenzhen Technological Metropolis (South) or the Industrial City of Shenyang (Northeast) .
But if Shanghai and his confines so far targeted struggle to overcome Omicron, others see the tip of the tunnel. Shenzen, who had been totally confined to early March, resumes his business because the number of new positive cases is now very low.
The Chinese authorities have also observed with nervous the wave of Omicron in Hongkong, which has made a large number of victims among non-vaccinated seniors.