Beijing
\nChina reported more than 20,000 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest daily tally given since the start of the pandemic, as millions in locked-down Shanghai began a new round of testing.
\nThe country\u2019s \u201czero-Covid\u201d strategy has come under immense strain as cases spike, with around 25 million residents of Shanghai \u2014 China\u2019s largest city and economic engine room \u2014 ordered to stay-at-home as the authorities struggle to contain the outbreak.
\nUntil March, China had kept daily cases low with snap localised lockdowns, mass testing, and strict restrictions on international travel.
\nBut the caseload has hit thousands per day in recent weeks, with Shanghai driving the surge of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
\nThe city locked down its residents in phases last week, prompting scenes of panic-buying and mass testing.
\nBut state broadcaster CCTV reported that the city will launch a fresh round of tests on the entire population on Wednesday.
\nShanghai is \u201ctesting its strength against the virus,\u201d senior city health official Wu Qianyu said at a press conference Wednesday, the latest dour warning from authorities suggesting a long run in lockdown may be ahead.
\nThe city is converting its landmark National Exhibition and Convention Center into a makeshift Covid hospital for 40,000 people, state news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday, just days after setting up a temporary quarantine centre in another expo hall.
\n\u2013 Extended lockdown \u2013
\nChina recorded 20,472 infections on Wednesday, the National Health Commission said in a statement.
\nIt is the country\u2019s highest-ever daily infection number given by authorities, even during the peak of the initial outbreak which centred around Wuhan.
\nThe majority of the cases are, however, asymptomatic.
\nAuthorities reported no new deaths, in a country which says only one person has died of the virus in nearly two years.
\nYet China faces low vaccination rates, especially among the elderly, leaving officials with a high-wire act of balancing maintaining public health with keeping the economy moving.
\nIn Shanghai quarantine facilities are bulging with people who test positive \u2014 even if they are asymptomatic \u2014 as city officials stick rigidly to virus protocols.
\nThose include separating Covid-positive babies and children from parents who test negative, a policy that has stirred anxiety and anguish from worried families.
\nCity officials said on Wednesday that parents of some child patients with \u201cspecial needs\u201d would now be allowed to remain with their Covid-positive children.
\nMeanwhile anger over lack of fresh food and curtailed movements is rising among residents as officials extend what was originally intended to be a short lockdown.
\nShanghai, China\u2019s largest city, accounted for more than 80 percent of the national tally, city officials said on Wednesday.
\nA top Shanghai official has conceded that the financial hub had been \u201cinsufficiently prepared\u201d for the outbreak.
\nChina, the country where the coronavirus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, is among the last remaining places following a zero-Covid approach to the pandemic.
\nThe outbreak has taken on an increasingly serious economic dimension, with China\u2019s factory output falling to its lowest in two years in March and services activity suffering a \u201cnotable drop in sales,\u201d according to independent indices released by Chinese media group Caixin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing China reported more than 20,000 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest daily tally given since the start of the pandemic, as millions in locked-down Shanghai began a new round of testing. The country\u2019s \u201czero-Covid\u201d strategy has come under immense strain as cases spike, with around 25 million residents of Shanghai \u2014 China\u2019s largest city […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-253412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n