Shanghai fully under lock and key as Covid-19 infections zoom

Shanghai residents have been asked not to venture out of their homes, except for getting tested

Covid-19 infections are hitting the roof in China’s Shanghai, forcing authorities to fully lockdown the city. People residing in the city have been asked to stay back at their homes. As per Tuesday’s figures, the number of Covid-19 cases rose to a record 4,477.

Shanghai residents are not permitted to venture out of their homes, be it for anything including walking their dogs. The only reason they could come out is for getting their coronavirus tests done.  Further, they are not even allowed to walk along hallways, garages or open areas of their residential compounds.

Clamp down may hit Shanghai financial hub

Shanghai is the financial hub of China, and the authorities had begun the clamp down a day after it sealed off its 25 million people in two stages. The restriction measures were such that half of the city was locked down for four days, and the next half saw lockdown after these four days.

Shanghai’s administration is trying to get each and every resident in the financial hub tested for the virus so that it could device measures to prevent a manifold spread in infections.

Though the residents were earlier allowed to go to the lobby of their buildings and walk around the open areas of their compounds, the harsher home confinement came about starting Tuesday. The strict lockdown has come about post the administrative machinery’s efforts to stall the Omicron variant spread failed in large measure. The government is now looking at various measures to halt the spread of the virus and these include import of antiviral drugs and Covid-19 vaccines.

Import of anti-viral drugs and vaccines

The Asian nation has already imported close to 21,000 boxes of Pfizer’s Covid pill Paxlovid via Shanghai earlier this month. High-risk patients are being treated with this drug.

As the virus spread continued in alarming proportions, Shanghai has also begun extending relief measures to people forced to stay at home. to Tax relief, rent extension and reductions, loan support for small businesses, retail and catering industries are some of them, said a report.

With Shanghai now under lock and key, there are concerns over how the financial hub would cope. Shanghai is a critical link in the global supply chain, and it has become imperative that disruption to the Chinese and global economy is prevented to good measure.  The only silver lining currently in terms of the economy is that China’s financial markets and the Shanghai port are functioning without any hassle until now. Shanghai is incidentally the world’s biggest port.