The Chinese authorities have just given a turn of the screw to the locking of the city which enters its fourth week of confinement. More than 17,000 new positive cases of Covid-19 were still announced there on April 22, a figure however in decline.
With our correspondent in Beijing, Stephane Lagarde
Padlocks have returned to the entrance gates of some residences in Shanghai. After partial relief of the last few days granted to communities without cases of Covid, here is the return of what the authorities call the “static management” of prevention and control of the epidemic.
“Da bai” and PCR tests
Basically, no one is moving, except the “da bai”, a “cute” nickname in Mandarin to describe these “big whites” or even these “big whites” from the health brigades responsible for carrying out the PCR tests in thick full suits of protection. On Thursday, April 21, the Shanghai Municipality issued nine measures that take effect until April 26, particularly emphasizing the need to strengthen “track and trace” efforts.
Scanning QR codes (the Chinese health pass) with smartphones at the entrance to restaurants and shops was perhaps not as systematically requested as in other Chinese megacities in the weeks before the epidemic outbreak. This may explain the difficulty in containing the virus.
Home disinfection
Last December, Xi’an city, in the northwest of the country, had also recognized a bug in the local health pass which had prevented contact cases from being reported. Same thing in the summer of 2021 in Zhengzhou, in the center of the country, where the floods had cut wifi and computer systems, partially breaking the tracing chain.
Health authorities also intend to prevent the spread of the disease beyond high-risk areas (hospitals, collective isolation centers, etc.). For this, in the most affected places, homes will be disinfectedwith forced movement of residents as we have seen in recent days so ” to accelerate the pace and pursuit of the zero covid societal goal “.
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