Shanghai reported another seven COVID-19 deaths today local time as the financial hub grapples with a record outbreak that’s brought unprecedented disruptions to residents and threatens the country’s economic growth.
The people who died were aged between 60 and 101 and had severe underlying health conditions, and follow three deaths announced on Monday. Shanghai reported 20,416 new infections, a decline from a recent peak though still elevated as the coronavirus continues to spread through the city.
Shanghai’s reporting of its first deaths comes over a month into its outbreak and as debate grows over its official death tally, which is strikingly lower than countries with higher vaccination rates.
The city’s 25 million residents have been locked down for weeks, with many facing difficulties sourcing food, basic necessities and health care. While the rest of the world has pivoted to living with the virus, China is sticking to COVID Zero despite concerns about the growing social and economic toll.
China’s top health official stressed on Monday that the country will continue to pursue its zero-tolerance approach. If the country were to loosen its controls, a large number of people with underlying conditions, as well as the elderly and kids, will be threatened which would severely affect the stable development of the economy and society, Ma Xiaowei, head of the National Health Commission wrote in an article published in state media.
China is deploying swift lockdowns and mass testing to try and get its biggest outbreak in two years under control. Over the weekend, the western city of Xi’an came under a partial-lockdown for four days after the city of 13 million identified more than 40 infections. The city had lifted a harsh one-month lockdown in late January after achieving COVID Zero.
While there’s no end in sight for when Shanghai will lift its lockdown, the city has published plans for resuming work — albeit with no time line — including getting businesses to use closed-loop management, where workers live on-site and are tested regularly. Tesla Inc. has restarted production at its factory in the city by using a closed-loop system that will require workers to sleep on the floor, Bloomberg News reported.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has already sent a team to Shanghai to ensure stable production at key firms and is pushing for output to resume in key industries. China faces growing industrial pressure and recovery of the sector remains unbalanced, spokesman Luo Junjie said at a briefing today.