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Shanghai
BusinessChina Business

Coronavirus: Shanghai factories amble towards reopening as city’s standstill order nears its end amid declining daily Covid-19 cases

  • Shanghai reported 20,416 new cases in the previous 24 hours, according to data released on Tuesday, a drop of 8.2 per cent from a day earlier
  • Seven elderly residents died, raising the death toll of the current wave to 10 since March 1

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A man takes a Covid-19 test in a residential community under lockdown in Shanghai on April 16, 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE
Daniel Ren

Several of Shanghai’s largest factories are tiptoeing towards cranking up their production as the city nears the end of a standstill order, while daily additions of Covid-19 cases fell for the second consecutive day in one of China’s largest manufacturing hubs.

Shanghai reported 20,416 new cases in the previous 24 hours, according to data released on Tuesday, a drop of 8.2 per cent from a day earlier. As many as 3,084 cases showed symptoms, 21.6 per cent more than a day earlier.

Seven elderly residents died, raising the death toll of the current wave to 10 since March 1, more than the city’s sum of fatalities in more than two years since Covid-19 was first reported. The deceased were all elderly – aged from 60 to 101 years – and suffered from a range of ailments including acute coronary syndrome, diabetes and cerebral infarction, which disqualified them from vaccinations.

As many as 390,000 residents in Shanghai – out of a total population of 25 million -have been infected by the highly transmissible Omicron variant since March 1, with 27,200 showing symptoms.

A man delivers bottled water to a neighbourhood during a lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai on April 18, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg
A man delivers bottled water to a neighbourhood during a lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai on April 18, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

Shanghai’s daily additions, hovering at more than 20,000 for 12 straight days, have defied a citywide lockdown, now in its third week, and half a dozen rounds of mass tests. Tens of thousands of businesses from corner shops to transnational investors are straining from lost production and choked supply chains, while seething public discontent threatens to boil over.

“We sincerely hope that all the citizens could understand and support our next round of mass tests, which will lay a solid foundation for bringing down new infections to zero at places outside quarantined areas,” Shanghai’s Executive Vice-Mayor Wu Qing said, delivering a rare apology during a press briefing on Tuesday. “We aim to resume production [by businesses] and restore an orderly life [for residents] as early as possible.”
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