China sends in military to help Shanghai
BEIJING: More than 20,000 medics from across China, including 2,000 from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), landed in Shanghai on Monday to help embattled local health workers as the financial hub rushed to test its nearly 25 million residents for Covid-19.
The government is scrambling to control the worst Covid outbreak in the city since the beginning of the pandemic with 8,581 asymptomatic cases and 425 symptomatic infections reported for Sunday.
Health authorities began testing residents from dawn on Monday in one of the largest mass testing operations globally since the first reported outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019.
Later on Monday, after the completion of the exercise, they said the city will remain under lockdown as they review results of the tests. The city began its two-stage lockdown on March 28, initially in Shanghai’s eastern districts, and later expanded to cover the whole city.
The deployment of military doctors and aid is an indication of the seriousness of the situation. “The medical staff were drawn from seven medical units affiliated with the army, navy and joint logistics support force. Upon arrival in Shanghai, they quickly carried out medical treatment, nucleic acid testing and other essential tasks,” the PLA Daily reported.
The PLA air force also deployed the Y-20, one of its largest transport aircraft, to fly medics and medical aid to China’s biggest city. The aircraft was last deployed to deliver aid to Wuhan in early 2020. China’s current mobilisation is its largest public health response since then.
Additionally, 38,000 health care workers from provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and the capital Beijing have been dispatched to Shanghai.
City defends kids policy
Shanghai health officials on Monday defended separating babies and young children from their parents if they test positive for Covid-19. Under China’s virus controls, anyone found positive even if they are asymptomatic or have a mild infection - must be isolated from non-infected people, including children.
“If the child is younger than seven years old, those children will receive treatment in a public health centre,” Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai municipal health commission, said on Monday. “For older children or teenagers... we are mainly isolating them in centralised (quarantine) places.”
Parents and guardians voiced their anger at the policy on social media. But Shanghai official Wu said the policy was integral to virus “prevention and control work”.
Overall, China reported 13,137 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, including 11,771 asymptomatic ones, the second consecutive day the country reported over 13,000 cases on Monday.