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All 26 million of Shanghai’s populace are under lockdown for COVID.

Recently, the Chinese government implemented a rolling lockdown strategy on the city of Shanghai as COVID-19 cases began to see mild spikes. Parts of the city and their corresponding infrastructure were put in phased lockdowns while COVID testing was carried out, with the intent being to lift those lockdowns and move on to the other parts of the city. However, as case numbers continue to rise, China has decided to scrap the phased plan and just lock down the entire city all at once.

As of Monday, new daily case numbers in Shanghai have exceeded 10,000, and since March, over 73,000 positive COVID cases have been confirmed in the city. While this is comparatively low to other first world countries, China’s zero-COVID policy means that the city needs to be completely locked down until the numbers can be brought under control. The Chinese government has deployed approximately 38,000 medical personell from elsewhere in the country to aid in testing, tracing, and quarantining in the largest medical operation conducted by the country since the initial COVID outbreak in Wuhan back in 2020.

Shanghai Covid lockdown extended to entire city https://t.co/irQTG05BUA

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“Currently, Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage,” said Wu Qianyu, an official at the municipal health commission. “We must adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearance without hesitation, without wavering.”