Tests throughout the city
In Shanghai, authorities announced three new local confirmed cases and one asymptomatic case detected outside quarantined areas on Saturday, as nearly all of the city’s 25 million residents began a new round of Covid tests.
Authorities ordered PCR tests for residents in 15 of Shanghai’s 16 districts this weekend, and five districts banned residents from leaving their homes during the testing period. A local official said residents were required to take at least one PCR test a week until July 31.
China’s most populous city did not lift its grueling two-month Covid-19 lockdown until June 1.
“I’m a little worried because if there are positive cases in the compound, it will go into lockdown,” said Shi Weiqi, a Shanghai resident. “I will also stock up well on some supplies in case the previous situation repeats itself.”
Shanghai authorities said they had reprimanded and fired several officials for oversights at a hotel used to quarantine people arriving from abroad and which was identified as one of the hotbeds of the wave of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
They also said they warned or fired executives at a state-owned company that owns the Red Rose beauty salon, where three cases were detected among workers this week. They said salon employees did not follow guidelines for daily PCR testing.
On Saturday, Shanghai reported seven new local symptomatic cases for the previous day, an increase of one, of which six were detected outside of quarantined areas. The city also recorded nine local asymptomatic cases, up from six the day before.
In total, mainland China recorded 210 new coronavirus cases on June 10, of which 79 were symptomatic and 131 asymptomatic, according to the National Health Commission. That figure is higher than the 151 new cases the day before; 45 symptomatic and 106 asymptomatic.