Sharjah24 – Reuters: Shanghai authorities on Thursday appealed to residents to keep cooperating with tight curbs imposed to stop COVID-19 spreading, saying they recognised their frustrations as China's most populous city entered the fourth day of a two-stage lockdown.
The plea for patience came as the Chinese financial hub, home to 26 million people, said its overall daily COVID caseload eased, for the first time in about two weeks, in an outbreak that began about a month ago.
It reported 5,298 locally transmitted new asymptomatic cases and 355 symptomatic cases for Wednesday, compared with 5,656 local asymptomatic cases and 326 new cases with symptoms reported a day earlier. Shanghai accounted for almost 80% of local asymptomatic cases reported across the whole of China for Wednesday, and about 20% of those with symptoms. Read full story
In a letter to the city's residents, the Shanghai government saying it was grateful for citizens' efforts and acknowledged their sacrifices, as it sticks with China's "dynamic clearance" approach - detecting the virus, tracing contacts and centrally quarantining all positive cases.
Shanghai is being locked down by splitting the city into two roughly along the Huangpu River, dividing the historic centre west of the river from the eastern financial and industrial district of Pudong. Authorities say this allows for staggered mass testing.
Movement curbs on residents in the eastern districts started on Monday and are set to be lifted at 05:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Friday.
Areas west of the river will be locked down from 03:00 on the same day, though some housing compounds in western districts already directed residents to stay home from Wednesday.
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