Confusion is infecting Shanghai. The authorities are dithering over a promised easing of severe lockdown rules in the face of record cases of Covid-19 and widespread anger over their cack-handed way they have handled the crisis.
The city has become a test for China’s faltering zero-Covid strategy, with nervous Communist party leaders sending mixed signals – announcing a change in the rules, while insisting they will stick to what they now characterise as a ‘dynamic’ zero-Covid policy ‘without hesitation or wavering’.
At the weekend, vice-mayor Zong Ming announced a reclassification of Shanghai’s districts according to the severity of the outbreak. But the plan is short on detail and residents of ‘low risk neighbourhoods’ have been told that while they can now move around in their compounds, they could not go out to the streets. Others have been told to stick to streets immediately around their homes.
The city announced a record 26,330 confirmed cases on Wednesday, topping a previous record set on Monday.
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