China's biggest city, Shanghai, is all set to introduce lockdown, in a phased manner to prevent further spread of COVID-19, the city's government said on Sunday, 27 March, reported AFP.
While the eastern half of the city will lockdown from Monday, 28 March to Friday, 1 April, the city's western side will see a lockdown in the following week from 1 April, officials said.
Shanghai, which has an approximate population of 25 million is one of the hotspots of the current COVID-19 outbreak in China, that has been triggered by the Omicron variant.
The country's National Health Commission on Sunday reported over 4,500 new COVID-19 cases. While the figure was almost 1,000 less than Saturday's tally, the daily COVID-19 caseload of the nation has significantly risen from its double digit case tally, reported few weeks ago.
Financial District, Public Transport To Be Affected
So far, Shanghai had avoided a complete lockdown as it was important to keep the Chinese port in the eastern side of the city and financial hub running to ensure that national and global economies were not affected.
However, as the cases were increasing, the city government decided to implement a two-part lockdown to "curb spread of the epidemic, ensure safety and health of people" and end infections "as soon as possible."
Shanghai's eastern half which has the international airport and financial district will be locked down from Monday, 28 March morning till Friday, 1 April. The western part of the city, also called Puxi, that has historic Bund riverfront will witness lockdown until 5 April, the government said in a public notice.
The government also asked residents to stay indoors during the lockdown period. People who are not involved in supply of essential services were asked to work from home. Those who work with organisations that provide essential services like food, sanitation, electricity, and gas would be exempted from stay at home order, government said.
Public transport including buses, taxis, and subway would not be operated during the lockdown, the government said. However, it did not make any mention of impact on activity at its port, rail service, or air travel in and out of Shanghai.
China, that is battling one its worst COVID-19 outbreaks in two years, had on Sunday, 20 March, imposed stay-at-home orders on millions of people in the country's northeast region. On Saturday, 18 March, the country reported two deaths due to the virus – its first in over a year.
Since early March, the country has been witnessing a spike in its COVID-19 cases, with several cities in the country reporting their highest caseloads since the first COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019.
(With inputs from AFP.)
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