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Shanghai
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Coronavirus: Shanghai’s daily new Covid-19 cases dip below 20,000 for the first time in 13 days as weeklong standstill order ends

  • New infections fell 7.4 per cent to 18,901 cases in the previous 24 hours, according to data released on Wednesday, bringing the city’s total cases to 408,000 since March 1
  • Symptomatic cases fell by 19.1 per cent to 2,494, while the death toll rose by seven, bringing the total fatalities to 17

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Medical workers from Zhejiang province carried out nucleic acid tests for residents at a COVID-19 testing site in Pudong district in Shanghai on March 28, 2022. Photo: AP
Daniel Ren

Shanghai added fewer new Covid-19 infections for the third consecutive day, with daily cases dipping below the 20,000 mark for the first time in 13 days as a citywide standstill order ends.

New infections fell 7.4 per cent to 18,901 cases in the previous 24 hours, according to data released on Wednesday, bringing the city’s total cases to 408,000 since March 1. Symptomatic cases fell by 19.1 per cent to 2,494, while the death toll rose by seven, bringing the total fatalities to 17.

“The battle against the virus in Shanghai is at a critical moment, so no let-up is allowed,” the Shanghai government said in a statement, citing Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, who has been overseeing the city’s antivirus work since April 2. “Any relaxation in the anti-pandemic work is unacceptable.”

Shanghai has been trying to resume production at 666 key manufacturers, including Tesla and the country’s largest chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, which has been idle since March 28, restarted assembling Model 3 and Model Y electric cars on Tuesday evening.
Employees work at the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
Employees work at the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai on Nov. 20, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Tesla will deploy a single shift to run at full capacity for the next three to four days, and tap its components inventory to assemble new cars, according to a report on state-owned Shanghai Television, quoting the carmaker’s senior director of manufacturing Song Gang.

China’s total infections dropped 7.7 per cent to 19,819, according to data released on Wednesday, most of them in Shanghai. Guangdong province in southern China added 20 cases, 14 of which showed symptoms. Jilin province in northeast China added 395 infections.

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