Shanghai puts 8,000 hospital beds in reserve for COVID-19 resurgence
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sample collection staff work at a testing booth in Shanghai.
Shanghai will prepare at least 8,000 beds in reserve at designated COVID-19 hospitals in case of another resurgence, according to the city's health commission.
There are currently more than 1,000 beds at the city's key designated COVID-19 hospital, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center in suburban Jinshan District, along with nearly 3,000 beds at the only remaining makeshift hospital on Chongming Island.
The treatment and quarantine beds are sufficient at present for positive cases, their close contacts and those coming from abroad, amid a steady waning of the pandemic, Wu Jinglei, director of the commission, said.
"However, preparation is essential even though the effort might be redundant."
Local hospitals with strong treatment and better infection control capabilities are preferred as designated hospitals for COVID-19. They are required to convert into a designated facility within 24 hours in case of emergency, or three days under normal conditions, according to Wu.
Following the pandemic resurgence in March, Shanghai designated 11 city-level and 34 district-level facilities as special COVID-19 hospitals.
District governments have been asked to prepare sufficient makeshift hospitals with 2.5 beds for every 1,000 residents. These can be put into use immediately, he said.
The recent KTV-related resurgence is trending towards good prospects under the more precise COVID-19 prevention and control measures, Wu claimed.
A PCR test booth on the Bund has been titled Changyin, which means "always negative."
Shanghai reported three asymptomatic community cases on Wednesday that had no links with the KTV-related resurgence and rated another three areas as high-risk.
The new infections, aged between 33 and 66 years, live in Putuo and Baoshan districts as well as the Pudong New Area. Their accommodations in Pudong's Xinchang Town as well as Putuo's Taopu Town and Baoshan's Songnan Town have become high-risk areas.
There are currently four high-risk areas and 70-plus medium-risk areas across the city. Nineteen among them will be downgraded from Thursday.
"The three new community cases had no connection with the city's previous COVID-19 transmissions traced back to KTVs and pubs," said Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the commission.
Among them, the cases in Baoshan and Pudong are co-workers, who have links with each other, he added.
Zhao also gave an update on the city's quarantine measures for close contacts of positive cases. They will be put under central quarantine for a week, followed by three days of home quarantine.
Five polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests will be conducted during the central quarantine along with another test on the last day of the home confinement.
The secondary contacts, or those who live, work or are in contact with positive cases for a long period of time, will undergo a week-long home quarantine and three PCR tests.
All street shops and buildings on Daxue Road in Yangpu District are listed as high-risk areas.
