Shanghai's local COVID cases hit daily record as Jilin outbreak persists
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[March 22, 2022]
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's financial
hub Shanghai on Tuesday reported a fifth consecutive daily record for
locally transmitted COVID-19 asymptomatic cases as the highly infectious
Omicron variant complicates efforts to stop the virus spreading.
Although small compared with the number of infections in many outbreaks
overseas, the rise is significant as Shanghai redoubles its efforts to
implement China's "dynamic clearance" policy designed to curb each
flare-up.
The city is pressing ahead with a block by block testing scheme after
already completing more than 30 million tests.
Shanghai reported 865 domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections
for Monday, official data showed, up from 734 a day earlier.
The municipality also reported 31 new local cases with confirmed
symptoms, which China counts separately, on Monday, including one person
who was initially reported as an asymptomatic infection and showed
symptoms later, according to data from the National Health Commission (NHC).
National authorities have warned local governments against slackening in
their virus control efforts and reiterated that infections should be
identified and isolated quickly, while acknowledging that officials
should minimise the economic and social impact of COVID restrictions.
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The NHC said on Tuesday that cities, including those with more than 10
million residents, must be able to complete a testing campaign within 24
hours, while its extent should be tailored to the need for COVID control
and not necessarily blanket testing.
IN THE NORTH
Including the infections in Shanghai, mainland China reported on Monday
2,281 new locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms, the NHC
said, compared with 1,947 a day earlier.
The majority of the new cases were found in the northeastern province of
Jilin, which is battling China's worst regional outbreak since the 2020
one centred on Wuhan where the pandemic began.
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![](../images/032222PIX/news_y49.jpg)
A man wearing a face mask walks in the rain outside Shanghai Railway
Station following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in
Shanghai, China March 21, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Mar/22/images/ads/current/farmandhome_lda_SFARM_2022.png) Jilin has mostly banned trips both
outside the province and from region to region within the province,
and residents who have to travel must notify the police.
The number of local symptomatic cases in Jilin's provincial capital
of Changchun has increased for five days in a row and hit a record
on March 21.
The city has suspended in-store shopping for three days through to
Wednesday and urged residents to go online to order daily
necessities, further reducing residents' movement as the city
scrambled to complete a new round of mass testing.
In the northern city of Sanhe, police have launched a formal
investigation into 15 people who failed to provide legitimate
reasons why they did not submit to citywide testing, citing the
"health risk" they posed to other residents, a statement from
Communist party authority in Sanhe late on Monday said.
The number of new local asymptomatic cases in mainland China stood
at 2,313 compared with 2,384 a day earlier.
There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,638.
As of March 21, mainland China had reported 134,564 cases with
confirmed symptoms, including both local infections and those
arriving from outside the mainland.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu, David Stanway, Beijing Newsroom, Stella
Qiu, Yifan Wang; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Kenneth Maxwell and
Barbara Lewis)
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