China's biggest COVID-19 lockdown in 2 years prompts new supply chain concerns | CBC News - Meegan Reed & Associated Press:
King of Hearts, Pudong, Shanghai panorama, 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
March 28 - "China's most extensive COVID-related lockdown in two years is underway in Shanghai, as the city of 26 million people undergoes a series of phased shutdowns to test a growing outbreak of the coronavirus. China's financial capital and largest city has implemented a two-phase partial lockdown for the next 10 days, starting with the Pudong financial district and nearby areas from Monday to Friday. This will allow mass testing to get underway after 3,500 new cases of COVID-19 were reported Sunday. In the second phase of the lockdown, the vast downtown area west of the Huangpu River that divides the city will start its own five-day lockdown.
"Residents will be required to stay home and deliveries will be left at checkpoints to ensure there is no contact with the outside world. Offices and all businesses not considered essential will be closed and public transport suspended. Bridges and tunnels in and out of the area are being strictly monitored....
"Already, many communities within Shanghai have been locked down for the past week, with their housing compounds blocked off with blue and yellow plastic barriers and residents required to submit to multiple tests for COVID-19. Shanghai's Disneyland theme park is among the businesses that closed earlier. Automaker Tesla is also suspending production at its Shanghai plant, according to media reports. Panic-buying was reported on Sunday, with supermarket shelves cleared of food, beverages and household items. Additional barriers were being erected in neighbourhoods Monday, with workers in hazmat suits staffing checkpoints....
"Some workers, including traders at the city's stock market, were preparing to stay within a COVID-19 "bubble" for the duration of the lockdown. Li Jiamin, 31, who works in the finance industry, said she had packed several days of clothing and supplies, and her company was sorting out sleeping and eating arrangements. 'The overall impact is still great,' Li told The Associated Press, pointing especially to losses suffered by workers in the informal sector, who have no such support....
"Shanghai has converted two gymnasiums, an exhibition hall and other facilities to house potential infected patients.
"China has called its long-standing 'zero-tolerance' approach the most economical and effective prevention strategy against COVID-19. The new measures being enforced in Shanghai aim to 'curb the virus spread, protect people's life and health, and achieve the dynamic zero-COVID target as soon as possible,' the city's COVID-19 prevention and control office stated in an announcement Sunday evening. That requires lockdowns and mass testing, with close contacts often being quarantined at home or in a central government facility. The strategy focuses on eradicating community transmission of the virus as quickly as possible.
"Still, Shanghai's announcement of the dates when the two lockdowns would be lifted appeared to show a further refinement in China's approach. Previous citywide lockdowns had been open-ended."
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/shanghai-lockdown-mass-testing-covid-19-1.6399546
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