China is pursuing its “zero-covid” policy. Shanghai will be subject to sector-specific containment from March 27, the local government announced on Sunday. China’s largest city is facing a rebound in the Covid-19 epidemic linked to the Omicron variant. The eastern part of the city will be confined for five days to allow the screening of its population, followed by the western part for the same duration from April 1. Shanghai has a total population of 25 million.
Millions of Chinese have been subjected to local lockdowns in several cities across the country affected by the virus. Shanghai and Jilin are currently the regions hardest hit by the epidemic. On Saturday, China recorded 5,600 new confirmed domestic cases, most of them asymptomatic.
China has largely contained Sars-CoV-2, which first appeared in the city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, thanks to a policy “zero-Covid” draconian sanitary measures. But this approach is increasingly questioned for its economic consequences and the “pandemic fatigue” felt by the people.