More venues closed as Shanghai reports 26 new COVID-19 infections
Shanghai Museum suspended its operation from Thursday afternoon.
Five locally transmitted COVID-19 cases with mild symptoms reported on Thursday in Shanghai.
More tourism and culture venues as well as hospitals in Shanghai were shut down on Thursday after the city reported five new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases with mild symptoms and 21 local asymptomatic cases.
Apart from an asymptomatic case who tested positive during screening, all the other cases returned positive tests after being centrally quarantined as close contacts of previous cases, Wu Jinglei, head of the Shanghai Health Commission, told a press briefing.
The new cases, aged between 10 and 72 years, have been sent to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center for treatment or quarantined medical observation, he revealed.
Since the beginning of the new round of COVID-19 resurgence in Shanghai on March 1, the city had screened a total of 4,361 people who had close links with the positive cases as of 5pm on Thursday. Among them, 4,320 have tested negative and the rest are undergoing examination.
Shanghai currently has six medium-risk areas: 281 Changdao Road of Hudong Community Subdistrict in the Pudong New Area; 233 Henan Road N. in downtown Jing'an District; 1200 Caoxi Road N. in downtown Xuhui District; the No. 1 building at 3705 Bao'an Highway in suburban Jiading District; the Yonghui Supermarket outlet on Huting Road N. in suburban Songjiang District; and Putuo District's Shiquan Community Cultural Activity Center on Ningqiang Road.
Citizens will receive a short message if big data analysis detects they had direct or indirect contact with COVID-19 patients recently, according to Wu Huanyu, deputy director of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
"However, it does not mean you are close contacts or secondary contacts of the new cases," he cautioned.
After receiving such messages, people are required to report to the community, company or hotel immediately, follow prevention measures and conduct self medical observation. If there are any symptoms, they should go to the nearest fever clinic with protective gears and avoid taking public transport, Wu suggested.
Shanghai Natural History Museum was closed on Thursday.
Twenty-one local asymptomatic cases reported in Shanghai on Thursday.
More temporary closures
More local hospitals and venues have temporarily shut down amid the rising number of coronavirus cases along with some local parks and universities.
Shanghai 10th People's Hospital on Yanchang Road M., Jing'an District, suspended its outpatients and emergency medical services on Thursday morning for COVID-19 screening.
Shanghai 5th People's Hospital in Minhang halted its medical services for close-loop quarantine and management.
Tongji Hospital in Putuo suspended its fever clinic on 368 Zhidan Road for COVID-19 screening. Other medical services are operating normally.
Xinhua Hospital in Yangpu District suspended its children fever clinic services for environmental and personnel screening. Other services at the hospital continue, including emergency, inpatients, medical checks and nucleic acid testing.
Shanghai Children's Medical Center on Dongfang Road, Pudong, suspended its outpatients, emergency, fever clinic and nucleic acid testing services for COVID-19 screening.
Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of Fudan University suspended operation at its Huangpu branch on 566 Fangxie Road for COVID-19 screening. Its Yangpu branch on 128 Shenyang Road is open.
Children's Hospital of Fudan University has suspended its fever clinics for screening. Other services are operating.
Some routes of intercity bus lines in Jinshan have been shortened or suspended to curb the spread of the COVID-19, the suburban district's transport authority said.
The bus lines between Jinshan and Pinghu as well as Jiashan, both in neighboring Zhejiang Province, have been shortened or suspended.
Shanghai Grand Theatre was also closed on Thursday.
All public culture and tourism venues in Jing'an were closed from Thursday, the district's culture and tourism bureau said.
The sites include all libraries, cultural centers, museums, art galleries, community cultural activity centers and tourism information centers. Entertainment sites, internet bars and role-playing mystery games have also been shut down.
Jing'an follows Xuhui in becoming the second Shanghai district to close all culture and tourism venues amid the current round of COVID-19 resurgence.
Shanghai Museum closed its door temporarily from Thursday afternoon.
Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, Shanghai Natural History Museum and Shanghai Planetarium will suspend operations from Friday. Tickets booked online will be refunded within 10 working days.
Fengxian District Museum suspended its operation from Thursday. Visitors who have already booked tickets can enter the site after its reopening any day through the end of 2022. The district's library and culture center have also been shut down temporarily.
Shanghai Great World, or Dashijie, also announced a halt to its entertainment performances and interactions with visitors from Thursday. The over century-old entertainment site on Xizang Road N. remains open but only with its exhibitions.
A number of parks in Putuo, Fengxian, Minhang, Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang, Xuhui and Jing'an districts have also been closed.
A visitor takes a photo of the closed Jing'an Sculpture Park on Thursday.
