Three Covid-19 deaths have been reported in Shanghai among the unvaccinated
Key Takeaways:
- For the first time since an Omicron-driven outbreak confined millions of people to their houses and disrupted industrial and economic productivity in March, millions of people have been unable to leave their homes.
- Officials in Shanghai announced this week that millions more nucleic acid and antigen tests would be performed across the city to screen for new ailments.
- Following public uproar about food shortages, medical supplies, and other fundamental necessities, the strict lockdown was dramatically eased.
For the first time since an Omicron-driven outbreak restricted millions of people to their homes and crippled industrial and economic output in March, China announced the deaths of three people in Shanghai from Covid-19 on Monday. There were also 22,302 new asymptomatic as well as symptomatic cases reported.
On April 17, the city recorded 19,831 new daily asymptomatic Covid-19 cases, down from 21,582. There were 2,417 new symptomatic Covid-19 cases in April, down from 3,238 in April.
For days, the city of over 25 million citizens reported more than 20,000 Covid-19 cases per day, but authorities had claimed that no one had died from the infection until Monday's statement.
According to a brief statement from the city's health authorities released on Monday, the three people who died on Sunday were aged 89 to 91, two women and one male, and were not vaccinated.
"Three people died in Shanghai on Sunday due to Covid-19." Two females and one guy, ranging in age from 89 to 91, were among the three individuals. According to the Shanghai city health commission, "the three had comorbid conditions such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure."
The commission stated that "they died despite all-out rescue efforts."
The three deaths brought the total number of Covid-19-related deaths on the mainland to 4,641, a far lower figure than many other countries' official mortality tolls.
On Monday, Shanghai officials announced that millions more nucleic acid and antigen tests would be performed this week across the city to screen out new illnesses.
Since March 10, the city has undertaken more than 200 million nucleic acid tests to contain the outbreak, which is China's largest Covid-19 outbreak since the coronavirus was initially found in late 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Residents of Shanghai are currently subject to a three-tiered lockdown, with those in "control" regions not permitted to leave their houses.
Last week, Shanghai authorities implemented a three-tier disease control system, allowing residents in regions where no documented cases for 14 days to leave their houses but remain inside their compounds and neighborhood as long as they followed health rules.
The rigorous lockdown was significantly lifted following public outrage about food, medical, and other basic requirements shortages.
On the mainland, 20,639 local asymptomatic carriers were discovered for the first time.
Apart from Shanghai, new local Covid-19 cases were reported in 15 other provincial-level regions on the mainland, including 166 in the northeastern province of Jilin.