Citizens asked to stay at home during staggered lockdown
Few vehicles are seen on Nanpu Bridge over the Huangpu River during Shanghai's staggered lockdown.
Citizens are required to stay at home, not even walk to the passageway, during Shanghai's staggered lockdown for a new round of COVID-19 screening, an official said on Tuesday.
Residents at the locked down areas are asked to avoid walking to the passageway, underground garage or any outdoor area of the community. Strolling, sports activities, gathering and chatting or walking the pets are forbidden during the lockdown period, said Wu Qianyu, an official with the Shanghai Health Commission.
The community property management staff or volunteers will help to deliver online orders to people's homes or dump garbage for them, Wu said.
Some districts under the staggered lockdown have released notices about the requirements to staying at home and the citizens must follow the stipulation, Wu told the city's daily COVID-19 press briefing.
For the nucleic acid testing that everyone will receive twice during the lockdown, people are required to go to the testing site in batches. They must wear a mask and keep social distance to avoid cross infection, she added.
According to the notices released by Pudong, Fengxian and Minhang districts, residents under lockdown are asked to order only necessities online and cannot walk outdoors to pick up the parcels or contact with the deliverymen.
Community workers and volunteers will deliver the online orders and food to the doors for the residents. Those have emergency demands such as medical services can contact the neighborhood or village committees, which will respond promptly, the districts said.
Residents in quarantined communities receive nucleic acid testing.
The home confinement measures in the lockdown communities can effective prevent the undetected asymptomatic cases from infecting their neighbors, said Wang Ying, a professor with Shanghai Institute of Immunology.
"If residents were allowed to move freely within the communities, the accuracy of the data from the twice PCR testing could be affected," she noted.
The lockdown has first be imposed on the Pudong New Area, Fengxian, Jinshan and Chongming districts as well as part of Minhang and Songjiang districts to carry out nucleic acid testing. The lockdown here will be lifted at 5am on April 1.
A total of 8.26 million people have received the PCR testing as of midnight Tuesday, said Wu. Some 17,000 sample collection staff has set up 6,300 testing sites for the locked down area. Neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have offered great supports, she noted.
Other areas in Puxi will be put under lockdown from 3am on April 1 through 3am on April 5 for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
Shanghai reported 96 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 4,381 local asymptomatic infections on Monday.
Of all the local infections, 21 confirmed patients are previously asymptomatic infections. Seven confirmed patients and 3,824 asymptomatic cases were detected during central quarantine, while the rest were found in the screening of high-risk people.
Puxi residents shop at a grocery store to prepare for the 4-day lockdown from Friday.
Supportive measures for companies
Shanghai has released a batch of new measures, such as tax and house rent reduction and subsidies, to support local companies to get through difficulties amid the COVID-19 resurgence.
"The tax policies alone are expected to save a total of 140 billion yuan (US$21.98 billion) for the eligible local companies and industries in 2022," Ruan Qing, deputy director of Shanghai's Development and Reform Commission, told the press briefing.
Local companies, especially the micro- and small-and-medium-size enterprises in difficulties, can enjoy over a million times of tax reductions this year, said Pang Wei, deputy director of the city's tax service bureau.
The city government will cover the PCR testing cost for the personnel of local retailing, dining and other life service sectors.
Local exhibition and conference industries will also receive subsidies for the international economic or technological exhibitions that had to be canceled due to the pandemic.
The city's state-owned enterprises will exempt the house rents for three months for local micro- and small-and-medium-size as well as private businesses. The companies within the medium-risk areas or those severely impacted by the pandemic will have their half-year rents exempted.
Shanghai's Hongqiao Railway Station receives a deceasing number of travelers.
