Much of Shanghai locked down as mass COVID-19 testing begins

Staff in personal protective equipment walk by a barrier of an area under lockdown in Shanghai, China, March 26, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters-Yonhap

China began locking down most of its largest city of Shanghai, Monday, as part of its strict COVID-19 strategy, amid questions over the policy's economic toll on the country.

Shanghai's Pudong financial district and nearby areas will be locked down from early Monday to Friday as citywide mass testing gets underway, the local government said. In the second phase of the lockdown, the vast downtown area west of the Huangpu River that divides the city will then start its own five-day lockdown Friday.

Residents will be required to stay home and deliveries will be left at checkpoints to ensure there is no contact with the outside world. Offices and all businesses not considered essential will be closed and public transport suspended.

Already, many communities within the city of 26 million have been locked down, with their residents required to submit to multiple tests for COVID-19. And Shanghai's Disney theme park is among the businesses that closed earlier.

Residents wearing face masks to help protect from them from COVID-19 line up outside a supermarket at night to buy groceries in Shanghai, China, March 27. AP-Yonhap

China has reported more than 56,000 infections nationwide this month, with a surging outbreak in the northeastern province of Jilin accounting for most of them. Shanghai has had relatively few of those cases, with just 47 recorded Saturday.

But in response to China's biggest outbreak in two years, Beijing has continued to enforce what it calls the ''dynamic zero-COVID'' approach, calling that the most economical and effective prevention strategy against COVID-19.

That requires lockdowns and mass testing, with close contacts often being quarantined at home or in a central government facility. The strategy focuses on eradicating community transmission of the virus as quickly as possible, sometimes by locking down entire cities.

A costumer buys food in a half-empty grocery store in Shanghai, China, March 25. EPA-Yonhap

While officials, including Communist Party leader Xi Jinping have encouraged more targeted measures, local officials tend to take a more extreme approach, concerned with being fired or otherwise punished over accusations of failing to prevent outbreaks.

While China's vaccination rate stands at around 87 percent, it is considerably lower among older people.

National data released earlier this month showed that over 52 million people aged 60 and older have yet to be vaccinated with any COVID-19 vaccine. Booster rates are also low, with only 56.4 percent of people between 60 and 69 having received a booster shot, and 48.4 percent of people between 70 and 79 having received one. (AP)

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