Shanghai residents are again ordered to stay at home. The authorities of the Chinese city announced, Thursday, June 9, that they were going to confine a district of 2.7 million inhabitants as of Saturday, in order to screen the entire population there for Covid-19. The announcement comes as the city last week lifted much of the restrictions on its 25 million residents, who had been in lockdown since at least early April due to an outbreak of Covid-19.
Since then, metros and buses have been running again, while Shanghainese enjoy the restaurants, bars and parks of the city. But while the Health Ministry reported nine new positive cases the day before in Shanghai on Thursday, several hundred thousand people remain confined to their residential compounds due to the detection of positive cases.
Minhang district in southwest Shanghai will be locked down on Saturday morning and its residents will have to take a PCR test, local authorities announced on the WeChat social network. “Closure will be lifted after sample collection”, they added, without specifying a specific date or time, or what measures will be taken in the event of the discovery of positive cases. Under the zero Covid national health strategy, all those who test positive are in theory placed in quarantine.
Thursday’s announcement thus aroused the concern of Internet users about a potential general reconfinement of the city. Rumors denied by the town hall.
The Chinese capital, Beijing, is slowly approaching normality after closing restaurants, bars, sports halls and parks last month to eradicate an epidemic outbreak, however much smaller than in Shanghai. The city’s main district of Chaoyang, however, on Thursday ordered the closure of clubs and bars after a few cases were detected, state media said.