2.7 million people affected: China orders mass tests and lockdown in Shanghai – politics

Today 10:21 am

Nine new corona infections were found in Shanghai on Thursday. The Minhang district is to be cordoned off for the mass tests on Saturday.

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Because of a corona mass test in Shanghai, a district in the Chinese metropolis will be cordoned off on Saturday. The authorities said on Thursday that the measure would affect 2.7 million residents in the southwestern district of Minhang.

Minhang will therefore be placed under “closed administration” to test all residents. The lockdown will be lifted after the samples have been taken. The authorities did not give an exact time frame.

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It also remained unclear what measures would be taken if residents of the district tested positive. According to the Chinese zero-Covid strategy, all infected people are isolated and close contacts – often the entire building or districts in which they live – are quarantined. Nine new local corona infections were registered in Shanghai on Thursday, none of them in Minhang.

China had relied on rigorous corona measures from the beginning of the pandemic and was thus able to keep the number of infections at a relatively low level by international comparison for a long time.

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With the advent of the omicron variant, however, there were large outbreaks. The center was initially Shanghai, after which the city with its 25 million inhabitants was rigorously sealed off at the beginning of April. Last week, the measures for most residents of the economic metropolis were relaxed again. (AFP)

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