Shanghai has classed residential units into three risk categories
\n SHANGHAI
\nAuthorities in China\u2019s financial centre of Shanghai will start easing lockdown in some areas from Monday, despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new COVID-19 infections, as they strive to get the city moving again after more than two weeks.
\nShanghai has classed residential units into three risk categories, to allow those in areas with no positive cases during a two-week stretch to engage in \u201cappropriate activity\u201d in their neighbourhoods, city official Gu Honghui said.
\n\u201cEach district will announce the specific names of the first batch (of communities) divided into the three types, and three subsequent lists will be announced in a timely manner,\u201d he told a news briefing.
\nThat promises relief for some of the city\u2019s 25 million residents, many of whom struggled to find food and medicine after more than three weeks locked down in the battle on China\u2019s biggest outbreak since coronavirus was first discovered in central Wuhan in late 2019.
\nOne of the first districts to release its list was southwestern Jinshan, which posted the names of residential areas still in the high- and medium-risk categories in its official channel on messaging app Weibo.
\nGu said Shanghai had divided the city into 7,624 areas that are still sealed off, a group of 2,460 now subject to \u201ccontrols\u201d after a week of no new infections, and 7,565 \u201cprevention areas\u201d that will be opened up after two weeks without a positive case.
\nThose living in \u201cprevention areas\u201d, though able to move around their neighbourhoods, must observe social distancing and could find themselves sealed off again if there are new infections, he said.
\nShanghai would make \u201cdynamic\u201d adjustments to the new system, Gu added, vowing greater efforts to minimise the impact of curbs on ordinary people in China\u2019s most populous city.
\n\u201cWe also hope all citizens and friends will continue to support and cooperate,\u201d he said.
\nSome criticised the move as a big risk at a time when Shanghai\u2019s caseload exceeds 25,000, however.
\n\u201cI think the Shanghai government has a secret plan to infect the whole of the Chinese people,\u201d said one poster on the Weibo platform, using the name \u201cThe Star Broke the Ice\u201d.
\nOthers said authorities had no choice.
\n\u201cI think this is the Shanghai government admitting it cannot continue locking down while ensuring that its citizens don\u2019t starve to death,\u201d said another Weibo user, posting under the name Ruan Yi.
\nChina\u2019s strategy remains unchanged, however, with national health official Liang Wannian saying the \u201cdynamic clearance\u201d policy was still Shanghai\u2019s \u201cbest option\u201d.
\nIt was misleading to view Omicron as \u201cbig flu\u201d, and lowering China\u2019s guard would expose its huge elderly population to risk, especially as the virus mutates, said Liang, the head of the National Health Commission\u2019s working group on COVID-19.
\n\u201cIf we lie flat, the epidemic would just be a disaster for these kinds of vulnerable people,\u201d the People\u2019s Daily newspaper of the ruling Communist Party quoted Liang as saying on a visit to the eastern city.
\nShanghai added 25,173 new asymptomatic infections on Sunday, up from 23,937 the previous day, although symptomatic cases edged down to 914 from 1,006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shanghai has classed residential units into three risk categories SHANGHAI Authorities in China\u2019s financial centre of Shanghai will start easing lockdown in some areas from Monday, despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new COVID-19 infections, as they strive to get the city moving again after more than two weeks. Shanghai has classed residential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-254450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n