Sharjah24 - Reuters: Shanghai officials said on Wednesday half the city had achieved "zero COVID" status, but uncompromising restrictions had to remain in place under a national policy which the head of the World Health Organization described as "unsustainable."

Data released by Shanghai, in its sixth week of a painful lockdown, showed the city recorded no cases outside areas under the strictest curbs on Tuesday for the first time since May 1.

Half of the city's 16 districts had achieved zero COVID status having not recorded any such cases for three days.

Despite achieving that important milestone, officials said it was not time to ease curbs.

"We must clearly recognise that the current situation is not stable and the risk of a rebound still remains,” Zhao Dandan, deputy director of Shanghai’s health commission, told an online press conference.

China's "zero COVID" approach has meant hundreds of millions across dozens of cities face various degrees of restrictions on movement, most dramatically in Shanghai.

Beijing said on Wednesday it detected 37 new infections on May 10, the lowest since April 26. Shanghai's cases were down to their lowest since March 23 at 1,487.