Airports, railways continue operating, food supplies guaranteed
Shanghai's airports, railway stations and international cargo transports will operate normally during the city's staggered lockdown on either side of the Huangpu River through April 5.
Also, the emergency departments of local hospitals will continue offering medical services. Each district will have designated hospitals to receive patients under lockdown, authorities announced on Monday.
The city's staple and secondary food supplies are sufficient with stable prices guaranteed. Local districts will make arrangements to deliver daily necessities to communities under lockdown.
The eight-day lockdown will be imposed on Pudong and Puxi, respectively, in turn for a new round of massive nucleic acid testing from Monday morning to curb the spread of the COVID-19 resurgence.
Every citizen is required to receive two polymerase chain reaction tests with an interval of at least a day during the lockdown, which has been initially imposed on Pudong, Fengxian, Jinshan, Chongming and parts of Minhang and Songjiang districts between Monday and Friday.
During that period, people living in non-key areas in Puxi, or communities that have yet to be quarantined, will receive an antigen self-test, Wu Jinglei, director of the Shanghai Health Commission, told the city's daily COVID-19 press briefing on Monday. Puxi will be put under lockdown between April 1 and 5.
"The new round of screenings is expected to remove the risky sites, cut off the transmission chain and curb the spread of the virus as quickly as possible," Wu said.
During the lockdown, those positive will be sent to designated hospitals or central quarantine sites. Their close contacts will be put under central or home quarantines depending on living conditions.
Shanghai has initiated six backup hospitals to receive COVID-19 patients, along with several central quarantine sites built in two stadiums, a talent apartment and an exhibition center, Wu said.
Another central quarantine site is being built in Chongming District, and plans have been made to convert additional large public facilities into central quarantine sites, Wu added.
Medical teams from local city-level hospitals are operating in central quarantine sites to serve COVID-19 patients.
People are asked to refrain from entering or leaving the city during the screening process unless it's an emergency. A negative PCR test report from within the previous two days is mandatory.
Resolute measure
Shanghai's COVID-19 surge happened among a "regional gathering" of people and has scattered across the city, posing a potential risk of a larger outbreak, said Wu Fan, deputy dean of the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University and a member of the city's COVID-19 prevention experts' team.
"So, it is necessary to carry out the more resolute measure to further reduce people's movements, quickly detect infections and eliminate hidden community transmission," Wu added.
She noted the key to the final victory is every citizen "pulling together and keeping in step with" the full coverage of the screenings.
"I hope we can achieve zero-COVID-19 success as quickly as possible," Wu said.
The city reported 50 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases with mild symptoms and 3,450 local asymptomatic infections on Sunday.
Of all the local infections, 17 confirmed and 2,833 asymptomatic cases were detected during central quarantine, while the rest were found in screenings of high-risk people.
Two additional areas in Shanghai, 9 Jumenhou Road in Huangpu District and 760 Loutang Road in Jiading Industrial Park, have been downgraded to low risk, reducing the number of medium-risk areas in the city to 15.
Gu Jun, director of the Shanghai Commerce Commission, said a list of life supplies guarantee companies have been organized among local supermarkets, wet markets, e-commerce platforms, food delivery companies, drug stores and logistic firms, all of which will operate normally.
Special company vehicles can drive freely in both Pudong and Puxi during the lockdown, and their personnel can exit their quarantined communities with certificates and negative PCR reports.
"The city's key e-commerce platforms have been operating normally," Gu said.
Communities under lockdown will have service teams comprised of community workers, cadres and volunteers who will help deliver online orders to people's homes.
Authorities will arrange specialists to serve those with special requirements and deliver necessary supplies to them. Service hotlines will be set up in different regions to address problems during the lockdown, Gu added.
Citizens who need medical services during the lockdown can contact their neighborhood committees or call 120. They will be sent to designated hospitals under a "closed loop" by ambulances or private cars.