The metropolitan city of Shanghai on Sunday announced the deaths of 39 people due to Covid while nearly all of its 25 million residents are in lockdown.
China, which has faced its worst epidemic outbreak in two years in recent weeks, has confined nearly all 25 million people in its economic capital, Shanghai, the epicenter of the contagion, since early April. The metropolis on Sunday announced the deaths of 39 people due to Covid, bringing the total to at least 87 since Shanghai confinement began.
Since the start of the epidemic, first detected in central China in late 2019, the country has managed to limit the total number of victims to fewer than 5,000 dead and fewer than 200,000 infected if we go by official figures, much lower than international counts .
“The situation is serious, the whole city must act immediately”
But the Omicron variant hit hard the residents of Shanghai, who were being held indefinitely in sometimes spartan conditions. The low mortality rate is worrying, especially as vaccination rates among elders are low. The 39 deaths concern elderly people suffering from pathologies such as hypertension, the authorities said.
Despite strict exit restrictions, almost 22,000 new positive cases were also registered in Shanghai on Sunday. China’s largest city has recorded nearly half a million total cases since early March.
The capital Beijing, more than a thousand kilometers away, has also reported 22 cases and warned that “urgent” measures are needed to stop the contagion.
“The situation is serious, the whole city must act immediately,” Beijing health official Pang Xinghuo told reporters on Saturday, noting that the virus has likely spread “invisibly” in recent days.