Around 350 million people in at least 44 cities in China are currently in some form of lockdown, according to an estimate on Monday, according to AFP.
The city of Shanghai, which has been in lockdown since the beginning of the month, on Tuesday announced seven new deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths in China’s economic capital to 10.
In addition, Shanghai recorded more than 20,000 new and mostly asymptomatic COVID cases on Tuesday, defying efforts by authorities to eradicate the infection.
City Hall had reported its first three deaths on Monday, a surprisingly low number in a city that counts about 20,000 new cases of contamination every day.
Since the start of the epidemic, first detected in central China in late 2019, Beijing has managed to limit the total number of victims to fewer than 5,000 dead and fewer than 190,000 infected if we go by official figures, much fewer than international figures. But the Omicron variant hit hard the 25 million residents of Shanghai, who were being held indefinitely in sometimes spartan conditions.
The total number of those infected in mainland China is 30,384, 75 of whom are in serious condition.
According to the town hall, the seven people who died in the past 24 hours were between 60 and 101 years old and suffered from previous illnesses.
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