Shanghai tightens lockdown despite falling COVID-19 cases
The Hindu
Thousands of residents have been forced into centralized quarantine centres
Authorities in Shanghai have again tightened anti-virus restrictions, just as the city was emerging from a month of strict lockdown due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
Notices issued in several districts said residents were ordered to stay home and are barred from receiving nonessential deliveries as part of a “quiet period” lasting at least until May 11. The tightened measures could be extended depending on the results of mass testing, the notices said.
“Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Together we can lift the lockdown at an early date," said one notice issued in the city's Huangpu district and posted online.
It wasn’t clear what prompted the renewed tightening, with the number of new COVID-19 cases in the city continuing to fall.
Shanghai on May 9 reported 3,947 cases over the previous 24 hours, almost all of them without symptoms, along with 11 deaths. Authorities have been gradually lifting isolation rules on the city’s 25 million residents but the new orders appear to be returning to conditions at the early stage of the outbreak.
Shanghai originally ordered mass testing along with a limited lockdown, but extended that as COVID-19 cases rose. Thousands of residents have been forced into centralized quarantine centres for showing a positive test result or merely having been in contact with an infected person.
Two Shanghai residents reached through social media said they'd had no prior notice of the new restrictions, which they were told could last for up to a week.
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