Shanghai reports over 25,000 new COVID-19 cases.

Shanghai has reported about 25,000 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, as residents of China’s most populous city complained of food and basic supplies.

The city has become a test bed for China’s elimination strategy, which seeks to test, trace and centrally quarantine all COVID positive people to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

“Shanghai’s case numbers are small compared to some cities globally, but it is battling China’s worst COVID outbreak since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in 2019.”

Shanghai reported today, 1,006 were symptomatic while 23,937 were classed as asymptomatic, which China counts separately.

The restriction has affected supplies of food and other essentials. Many supermarkets have been shut and thousands of couriers locked in. Access to medical care has also been a concern.

Citizens in several cities expressed anxiety in social media groups that their cities might also go into lockdown, with screenshots shared of maps showing various highways closed across the country.

The Ministry of Transport said, “It met with other government departments to work on standardising highway pandemic checkpoints as restrictions at the local level were causing congestion for critical supplies.”

On Saturday, the southern megacity of Guangzhou, with more than 18 million people, said it would begin testing across its 11 districts after cases were reported on Friday.

A key port city near Shanghai, said it was closing all indoor dining at restaurants and hotels, and that people who had been in confined spaces would undergo testing daily for three days, without elaborating.

Guides from Shanghai circulated on social media. Recommended items for people in other cities to stock up on in case of lockdown, such as basic cooking equipment, seasonings, and staple dried foods like rice and pasta.

Temitope/Reuters