Shanghai reports 3 Covid-19 deaths, over 22,000 cases
BEIJING: China on Monday reported deaths of three people from Covid-19 in Shanghai for the first time since the financial hub entered a lockdown in March following an Omicrondriven outbreak that’s confined millions to their homes and disrupted production and economic output.
Shanghai reported 22,302 new asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. It reported 19,831 new daily asymptomatic Covid-19 cases on April 17, down from 21,582 on the previous day.
New symptomatic cases stood at 2,417, down from 3,238 for April 16.
The city of around 25 million residents have been logging more than 20,000 Covid-19 cases daily for days but until Monday’s announcement authorities had maintained no one had died of the infection.
A brief statement from the city’s health authorities said on Monday that the three who died on Sunday were aged between 89 and 91, two women and one man, and were not vaccinated.
“On Sunday, three deaths from Covid-19 were reported in Shanghai. The three individuals included two females and one male, with their ages ranging from 89 to 91. The three suffered from comorbidities including coronary heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure,” according to the Shanghai municipal health commission.
The three deaths took the overall Covid-19-related deaths in China to 4,641.
Brazil to lift public health emergency
Brazil announced on Sunday it will “in the coming days” lift public health emergency measures in place for over two years, citing a drop in the number of deaths and infections.
More than 660,000 people died of the virus in Brazil, one of the hardest-hit countries second only to the United States.
But the number of infections and deaths has fallen dramatically as authorities ramped up immunization, with about 75% of its 212 million people now fully vaccinated.