Shanghai declares zero-Covid milestone but residents cast doubt on reopening
CNN
Shanghai officials on Tuesday said they had achieved "zero-Covid at the community level" in what appeared to be a turning point in a heavy-handed and costly campaign to tame an Omicron outbreak -- but many residents remain skeptical the city will reopen anytime soon.
"Zero-Covid at the community level" means infections are no longer found outside centralized quarantine facilities or neighborhoods under the strictest lockdowns -- and is a prerequisite for those measures to be lifted.
Zhao Dandan, deputy head of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said at a news conference Tuesday that all 16 districts of the Chinese financial hub had now achieved that distinction. But 860,000 people remain under the strictest lockdown level, meaning they cannot leave their homes.
President Joe Biden asserted Friday that Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current 8-month conflict in Gaza, laying out a three-phase proposal Israel has submitted to wind down the grinding crisis as he declared, “It’s time for this war to end.