China:Guangzhou facing Covid outbreak, Shanghai tweaks lockdown

Shanghai has relaxed strict lockdown in selected zones even as it again registered more than 26000 new locally transmitted cases with 914 symptomatic cases. Shanghai’s authorities have reclassified the city’s 16 districts according to the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak after six rounds of mass testing. A total of 7,565 areas have been declared “precautionary zones”, the lowest-risk category, because they recorded zero cases of the Omicron variant over the past 14 days. Relaxation came amid local residents’ continuous complaints about over-kill approach by the authorities, which hampered the deliveries of food and daily essentials, disrupted supply chains, forcibly separated children from their parents and even led to the brutal killings of pets. Of the city’s 17,600 communities, however, some 7,624 remain in the strictest lockdown designation and people there are required to stay at home.

According to reports, Chinese economist Lang Hsien-ping’s elderly mother died as she could not receive treatment at a hospital due to non-availability of her Covid-19 test result even after waiting for four hours, according to his social media blog on Monday terming it as “avoidable tragedy”. As COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai have disrupted daily life and the economy and left residents struggling to access food or medical care, citizens elsewhere in China are anxious about similar stringent measures even as officials seek to assure the public they are well prepared.  As news of Shanghai residents struggling to buy food spread across China, anxious prevailed among residents in other provinces who reportedly rushed to stockup daily provisions. Multiple “survival guides” have been shared on social media in the past few days as people in other parts of China observed the situation in Shanghai.

On Tuesday, the United States said it had ordered all non-essential consulate staff to leave the city, citing the COVID response. The US earlier advised its consulate staff to leave and also urged Americans to reconsider travel to China due to “arbitrary enforcement” of local laws and COVID-19 restrictions, particularly in Hong Kong, Jilin province and Shanghai in an announcement that drew anger from Beijing.

Guangzhou, a sprawling metropolis of 18 million people on China’s southern coast, is also battling an outbreak of the disease and is conducting a mass testing campaign. Residents have been advised not to travel unless absolutely necessary and the city has been closed to arrivals from outside. Guangzhou’s health commission said it had found 27 new confirmed local cases and 11 asymptomatic cases as of Monday evening. A total of 61 infections have been reported in the current outbreak since Friday. China is still mainly closed to international travel, even as most of the world has sought ways to live with the virus.Mainland China reported a total of 24,659 confirmed cases on April 11, most of them people without symptoms, the national health authority said on Tuesday. More than 23,000 cases were in Shanghai.