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Shanghai reported the first deaths of its surging Covid-19 outbreak, the biggest flareup China has had to deal with during the pandemic.
Three people died on Sunday, according to Shanghai’s municipal government. They were aged between 89 and 91 and all had underlying diseases.
The newly reported deaths are the first since two people passed away in mid-March in the northeastern province of Jilin. They were the first Covid fatalities in more than a year in China, where a strict zero tolerance approach contained the virus until the more infectious delta and omicron variants emerged last year.
Now with the country grappling with the worst Covid outbreak since Wuhan in early 2020, doubts about the effectiveness of China’s policy to eliminate the virus have been growing. The lockdown and repeated testing of Shanghai’s 25 million residents hasn’t yet stopped infections as the city reported more than 22,000 cases Sunday, taking the total number of people infected with the virus to more than 300,000.
Yet Beijing has vowed repeatedly to stick with the so-called Covid Zero policy. A front-page commentary in the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, the People’s Daily, on Monday called for stricter implementation of Covid control and prevention measures, warning a relaxation of efforts would risk crippling China’s health care system.
Suspicions had been growing about potential Covid-related deaths in Shanghai, particularly among the elderly, before the official announcement of deaths Monday. Two elderly-care facilities in the financial hub have been battling outbreaks triggered by the omicron variant, and fatalities have occurred, according to the Wall Street Journal, Caixin and other local media.
Shanghai is the epicenter of China’s worst Covid outbreak since more than two years ago, with the virus surging through the population, infecting everyone from newborns to people aged close to 100, according to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission.
But most cases are mild or asymptomatic and the reported number of severely ill patients remains negligible, according to the government.
Cities around China have been heeding Beijing’s call to implement stringent movement restrictions to curb the virus. Over the weekend the western city of Xi’an came under a partial-lockdown for four days after the city of 13 million found more than 40 infections.
The central city Zhengzhou also locked down its airport district for two weeks and started mass testing in the area on Monday. The Wuhu city in eastern province of Anhui also locked down its downtown area after finding just one infection.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.