Health officials in China have sent more than 38,000 health workers to Shanghai as the city of about 26 million people is in a prolonged lockdown due to a roaring outbreak of the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant.
The megacity, which serves as China’s financial center, went into lockdown in two phases on March 28 and was initially slated to end on April 5. But with almost the entire city still confined to their homes or quarantine centers, officials say the lockdown will continue.
“The city will continue to manage seals and checks and strictly enforce ‘stay at home’ except for medical treatment,” the Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account, according to Reuters. There was no indication of when the lockdown will be lifted. cancelled.
On Sunday, China reported more than 13,000 cases of COVID-19, a 143 percent increase in the past two weeks and a record high for the country. Of those cases, Shanghai was responsible for just over 9,000 of them — the city counted 8,581 asymptomatic cases and 425 symptomatic cases on Sunday.
Now city officials are working to continue massive testing, sending health workers door-to-door to clear cases. People who test positive or have close contact with cases are being sent to mass quarantine facilities in the city. Reuters reporters in Shanghai relayed residents’ frustration at the crowded conditions in quarantine facilities, where they fear the virus will only spread further. There are also reports of distraught parents being separated from their young children after testing positive.
Reporters spoke to Esther Zhao, whose 2-year-old daughter was taken to a quarantine center after they both tested positive for COVID-19 at a hospital. Zhao spoke to Reuters reporters from the hospital on Saturday. “No pictures were taken at all… I’m so anxious, I have no idea what situation my daughter is in,” she said with tears in her eyes. According to Zhao, doctors at the hospital told her that according to the city rules, “children must be sent to designated points, adults to quarantine centers and you must not accompany the children.”
According to reports on Chinese social media WeChat, 3-month-old children are separated from their breastfeeding mothers. One poster called the policy “horrific.”
Meanwhile, there are also reports of exhausted health workers trying to manage overcrowded quarantine centers and hospitals.
More than 38,000 health workers from across China have now been deployed to help eradicate cases in Shanghai, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. More than 11,000 will be sent to support hospitals, while more than 23,000 will help collect samples from residents for mass testing. The remaining 4,000 will help process the samples in testing labs.
