Shanghai tightens lockdown to hit ‘zero-COVID’ goal by late May

Shanghai is tightening its already strict COVID-19 lockdown in a fresh push to eliminate infections outside quarantined areas of China’s biggest city by late this month, people familiar with the matter said.

Curbs will likely vary across the city’s 16 districts as some have already hit the target, but the people said movement curbs will generally remain until the end of May due to fears of a rebound, despite recently falling case numbers during the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak.

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Accounts from residents in several districts as well as social media posts showed the government of the city of 25 million accelerating and expanding an effort to transfer the close contacts of positive cases to central quarantine centers.

Multiple residents said they were being required to move to such facilities, despite testing negative, after cases were found in their buildings, stoking frustrations.

Other residents said they were told on Saturday by their housing compounds they would no longer be able to leave their front doors or estates or receive deliveries for a week as part of efforts to reach the goal of “zero cases at community level” goal.

The Shanghai government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shanghai is reporting thousands of cases a day, the vast majority in sealed-off areas such as central quarantine facilities, premises under “closed loop” management and housing where residents are barred from leaving their front doors.

Ending community-level transmission outside such areas has been a lockdown turning point in cities such as Shenzhen, which last month reopened public transportation and let people go back to work.

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