Employees wearing face masks stand outside the Shanghai Disneyland theme park as it reopened after being closed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the Shanghai Disney Resort in Shanghai, China, May 11, 2020.
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SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s financial hub in Shanghai on Monday reported a record daily rise in domestic COVID-19 infections as authorities sought to test residents and rein in the Omicron version, while Disney shuttered. (DIS.N) Asylum until further notice.
Official data showed, on Monday, that as of recent weeks, which were relatively unaffected by the coronavirus, Shanghai had reported 24 new locally transmitted coronavirus cases with confirmed symptoms on Sunday and 734 asymptomatic local infections.
It is the fourth consecutive day that asymptomatic local infections have increased in Shanghai.
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Although the number of infections is low by global standards, Shanghai has quickly followed China’s “dynamic clearance” policies, closing schools and testing apartment complexes in an effort to limit the spread of the virus.
“When it comes to the whole situation of epidemic control and prevention that we are facing, it is very complex and dangerous, and it is also a very big test for us,” city health official Wu Jingli said at a press briefing.
Shanghai will adhere to “dynamic clearance,” Wu added, expressing the hope that popular support for the policy will continue.
The city also closed the Shanghai Disney Resort from Monday until further notice. Read more
But there were signs of frustration with the city’s district-specific approach.
“Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen had three different models of epidemic response,” said one user of the Chinese Twitter-like Weibo network.
“Hong Kong is the worst but it will be the first to open,” the writer, who went by the name of Zhangin, said in a widely shared blog post. “Shenzhen is the most efficient, Shanghai may be the most stressful, even the most miserable.”
The severity of responses to the outbreak by complexes and residential neighborhoods in Shanghai has varied, with some choosing to close for up to two weeks. Some people in other closed areas said they were not told how long they would have to stay at home.
Evaluator committees that help organize testing programs have also faced challenges. One installer distributed tokens to thwart outsiders’ attempts to run free tests.
Including Shanghai’s infections, mainland China reported a total of 1,974 new locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms on Sunday, data from the National Health Commission (NHC) showed, up from 1,656 the day before.
Tangshan, the largest steelmaking city, with only 12 local infections since March. 19, only essential vehicles are allowed on roads smaller than highways, while people with disabilities who must use vehicles will need to get approval.
The southern manufacturing hub in Shenzhen has allowed work and production activities to resume, as well as bus and subway services in most areas, after daily local case numbers declined after three rounds of citywide testing.
However, there are still severe restrictions in some places.
The city government said Shenzhen residents still need to test negative in order to use public transportation from Monday through March 27, during which time nonessential indoor services will remain closed.
Candidates for vaccines specifically targeting Omicron, or among variants of concern, are in pre-clinical studies, a national health official said Saturday, without identifying the companies involved.
The new local asymptomatic cases in China, which it did not classify as confirmed cases, reached 2,384, up from 2,177 the day before. The death toll did not change at 4,638 and there were no new deaths.
By Sunday, mainland China had reported 132,226 cases with confirmed symptoms, both among local residents and from overseas.
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Additional reporting by David Stanway, Roxanne Liu, Stella Keogh, Weifan Wang, Brenda Goh, Engin Tham and Shanghai Editorial Chamber; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Our criteria: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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