Shanghai announces lockdown as it becomes the latest Chinese city to be afflicted by a new wave of CCP virus infections. Officials have claimed at least six cases from the Zhaotong residential community in the Huangpu District. Authorities have since imposed a lockdown in the residential community.
According to state-backed Global Times, more than 15,000 people may have come into contact with these infected people or might share overlapping travel histories. Three additional cases of infection were said to be imported. Mass testing of hospital workers is currently underway.
In the Zhaotong residential compound, all shops have been closed and no one is allowed to come in or go out. All hotels have shut down, with customers and staff being sent to other hotels for isolation. The place has been classified as a medium-risk area.
“[Some] residents are now staying in hotels under quarantine, under restriction… There is no outbreak in the district where I live … but you have to wear a mask in Shanghai now when you go to supermarkets and to residential communities… They take your body temperature when you go to buy groceries,” a source told Radio Free Asia.
All 13,000 residential complexes in Shanghai are under high alert
Before entering any complex, visitors must submit their health QR codes and do temperature checks. Civil affairs officials have announced that people who travel out of the city for the Lunar New Year festival will have to submit negative nucleic acid results once they return.
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Those who come from areas designated “medium-risk” will be placed under 14-day quarantine at home and will have to submit two nucleic acid tests. Those coming from high-risk areas will be under central quarantine for 14 days.
The first two cases of infections in Shanghai were discovered in two hospitals. Authorities have asked all personnel at the medical institutions to get tested for the virus. As of Jan. 22, more than 15,900 people have been tested. A team of around 3,100 people has been deployed in the city to investigate the infections as well as to help with contact tracing.
The shutdown of hospitals has created panic among medical students that are affiliated with these hospitals. Some students are worried that they may be forced to stay on campus. Many have left the campus before any movement restrictions were announced.
“Students who were scheduled to do experiments on Jan. 30 all rescheduled for today (Jan. 22)… The campus is full of the sound of suitcases rubbing the ground. I feel that the epidemic is so close to me. I really hope that the epidemic in Shanghai will be effectively controlled as soon as possible,” one student said in a social media post.
The CCP virus is spreading throughout other parts of China as well. On Jan. 19, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan blamed the outbreak in Hebei province on religious gatherings and asked officials to persuade people to change their religious customs.
In the city of Shijiazhuang, officials laid the blame on events like weddings and funerals in which a large number of people are tightly packed indoors and shared food with each other.
In the port city of Tianjin, authorities have shut down transportation routes into the city so that the virus isn’t brought in from neighboring Hebei.
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