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China reported 13,000 Covid cases on Sunday, the most since the maximum of the first pandemic wave over two years ago, with Shanghai, now serving as the country’s epicenter. The highly transmissible Omicron variant has spread to more than a dozen provinces, posing a threat to China’s “zero-Covid” strategy, which had successfully kept daily cases in the double or triple digits up until March. But the current outbreak is also putting the Chinese to the test, as Beijing imposes targeted lockdowns, mass tests, and travel restrictions at a time when much of the world has reopened. Over the last month, tens of millions of Chinese residents have been subjected to some form of lockdown, disrupting work and harming the economy.
The country registered 13,146 cases on Sunday, according to the National Health Commission, with “no new deaths” reported.
It is the highest infection rate in China since the middle of February 2020.
The streets of Shanghai were silent Sunday as a citywide lockdown continued, with nearly 70% of the national infection caseload discovered through mass testing of the city’s 25 million residents.
However, city officials have admitted that they are struggling to contain the outbreak, with thousands now under state quarantine and health workers overburdened.
After a visit to Shanghai, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged “resolute and swift steps to stem the spread of the virus,” according to official news agency Xinhua.
Citizens are becoming increasingly enraged over lockdowns that were assumed to last only four days but now seem as likely to last several more days as new rounds of mass testing are carried out.
Parents have expressed concerns about being separated from their children in the event of a positive test, and residents have complained about a lack of fresh food and the ability to walk dogs outside.
China, where the coronavirus was first detected in 2019, is one of the last countries to take a zero-Covid approach to the pandemic.
