China’s recent coronavirus outbreak in the major city of Shanghai remains “extremely grim” amid an ongoing lockdown, a city official said, per The Associated Press.
Driving the news: Gu Honghui, the director of Shanghai’s working group on epidemic control, told local media that Shanghai’s recent coronavirus outbreak was “still running at a high level.”
- “The situation is extremely grim,” Gu said, per AP.
What’s happening: China is working hard to contain the outbreak in Shanghai, extending the recent lockdown to cover all 25 million people living there, per BBC News.
- Reported COVID-19 cases are about 13,000 per day for the city.
- More than 10,000 health workers have been sent to help the city.
- About 2,000 of the health workers are from the military, per CNN.
- Mass testing has continued within the city.
- Some residents have been locked down for weeks inside their homes.
The bigger picture: These measures to contain COVID-19 come as China has worked to implement a “zero-COVID” system.
- However, as the coronavirus has become more transmissible, it’s been harder for China to contain the outbreak, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
- It hasn’t helped that China has seen new coronavirus subtypes — including the omicron XE subtype — spread throughout its country, leading to even more cases, according to Bloomberg.