Shanghai sees lowest daily tally since Mar 24
▶ Financial hub may need fight at community level till June 8: epidemiologists
Shanghai’s epidemic control has approached the light at the end of the tunnel as the megacity has detected the lowest daily tally since March 24, and at least eight districts have basically cleared the coronavirus at the community level.
Epidemiologists said the cheerful sign proves the efficacy of China’s dynamic zero- COVID policy, but the hard- won fruits should be further consolidated to avoid resurgence.
“The outbreak in Shanghai has shown a good trend and the viral transmission risk has been effectively curbed… Daily new cases have seen an obvious fall and fewer positive cases were found in areas beyond quarantine facilities, where the epidemic risk has been effectively controlled,” Shanghai health authorities said on Wednesday.
Shanghai recorded 228 confirmed cases and 1,259 asymptomatic cases on Tuesday, the lowest tally since March 24. All the cases were found among quarantined groups, the Shanghai municipal health commission said on Wednesday.
Xuhui district became the latest to achieve dynamic zeroCOVID at the community level, making districts that had seen zero cases in non- controlled regions to eight, local health commission said.
Shanghai experienced a dark moment in April when it saw more than 20,000 new infections in a single day. The decline in the daily tally indicates that previous epidemic restrictions were effective in containing COVID- 19, a senior expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention told the Global Times.
Adhering to the dynamic zero- COVID policy with strictest and classified restrictions in key neighborhoods, as well as carrying out nucleic acid tests regularly – two essential methods – could bring the epidemic that has lasted about two months to an end, expert noted.
Research by the Ruijin hospital affiliated to the School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University predicted that by conservative estimates, Shanghai’s fight against the epidemic at the community level may last until June 8, when the daily new cases would fall below 1,000.
As of Tuesday, over 17.97 million residents were in areas classified as “precaution- level,” which means that they could be allowed to move freely within certain regions at certain times, according to local authorities.
“We will further narrow restricted zones and expand precautionary zones, allowing more and more residents to step out of their homes and neighborhoods,” Xu Shujie, an official from Shanghai, said at Wednesday’s press conference.
Lu Hongzhou, head of Shenzhen’s anti- epidemic expert team, said that though Shanghai has seen an improved epidemic trend, it still needs to consolidate the hard- won results to prevent resurgences as restrictions are eased gradually.