Shanghai will reschedule 2.7 million people for testing

An advertisement that worries residents of the Chinese capital about a possible general reshaping of the city. Despite the dismantling that began a few days ago, on Thursday, June 9, Shanghai announced that it would confine an area of ​​2.7 million people on Saturday in order to screen all residents there.

On the social network WeChat, local authorities announced that Minhang District in southwest Shanghai will be confined on Saturday morning and its residents will have to take a PCR test. Closure will be lifted after samples are collected.They added, without specifying a specific date or time, or what actions will be taken if positive cases are detected. Under the National Health Strategy “Zero Covid”, all people who test positive are theoretically placed in quarantine.

The city last week lifted many restrictions on its 25 million residents, who have been in lockdown since at least the beginning of April in order to tackle the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, the most virulent since 2020. But the dismantling is not exhaustive: hundreds of thousands of people remain confined to their apartment complexes due to the discovery of positive cases.

“What will happen if there are positive results?”

Is the neighborhood closed? [de Minhang] Will it really be raised after samples are collected? »Weibo social network user asks. “What will happen if there are positive results? Will the lockdown continue?”Another worry. The city council on Thursday denied rumors that the rest of Shanghai would be booked again.

The confinement dealt a severe blow to the economy, but the city came back to life for a few days. Subways and buses are back up and running again, while Shanghai enjoys the city’s restaurants, bars and parks. However, some residents are still stuck in their homes, sometimes causing tension with the authorities. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health reported nine new positive cases the previous day in Shanghai.

The Chinese capital, Beijing, is slowly getting closer to normalcy after closing restaurants, bars, gyms and parks last month to stem an outbreak – much smaller than in Shanghai. And state media announced that the city’s main district, Chaoyang District, ordered the closure of clubs and bars on Thursday after a few cases were discovered.