China imposes two-phase lockdown in Shanghai amid Covid-19 surge

Amid the new COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the Chinese city of Shanghai is going into a two-phase lockdown starting on Monday. This comes after Shanghai has seen a surge in cases of virus, forcing the Chinese authorities to redirect some international passenger flights to other cities from March 21 to May 1. Shanghai, which has a population of nearly 25 million people, over the past day detected 50 local and 10 imported COVID-19 cases, and another 3,454 asymptomatic cases.

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The first lockdown phase was in effect from 05:00 a.m. local time and will last until 05:00 am April 1 in the areas located east and south of the Huangpu River. The second phase will last from April 1 to April 5 in areas west of the Huangpu River. Media reports said the operation of public and private traffic will be shut down, and the bridges over the Huangpu river will also close for the lockdown period.

China has imposed various rules to keep the COVID-19 cases away from the country since the deadly initial outbreak in 2020 but the fast-spreading variant known as "stealth omicron" is testing China's zero-tolerance strategy. The country's COVID-19 cases are low as compared to elsewhere in the world but in the first two weeks of March, China recorded over 10,000 cases which exceeded the previous flare-ups.

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