About 16 million residents in Shanghai are being tested for the coronavirus during the second stage of the lockdown that shifted Friday to the western half of China’s biggest city and financial capital.
Meanwhile, residents of Shanghai’s eastern districts who were supposed to be released from four days of isolation have been told their lockdowns could be extended if COVID-19 cases are found in their residential compounds.
The lockdown in Shanghai, being done in two phases over eight days to enable testing of its entire population, has shaken global markets worried about the possible economic impact. China’s manufacturing activity fell to a five-month low in March, a monthly survey showed Thursday, as lockdowns and other restrictions forced factories to suspend production.
For four days starting Friday, residents of Puxi on the west side of the Huangpu River dividing Shanghai cannot leave their neighborhoods or housing compounds. The gates at some compounds were locked from the outside, with groceries and meals delivered to collection points.
Government workers and volunteers wearing full protective equipment went door-to-door with megaphones in the city with 26 million people, calling on residents to report for testing at designated sites where they were met by long lines and waits of more than 90 minutes.
China’s National Health Commission said another 1,787 domestic cases of COVID-19 had been recorded on Thursday, including 358 in Shanghai. Another 5,442 tested positive for the virus without becoming ill, 4,144 of them in Shanghai.
People who tested positive without symptoms are being taken to temporary isolation centers, including gymnasiums and exhibition centers.
Public transport has been suspended and roads closed, bringing the normally bustling metropolis to a standstill. While city residents are being told to stay put, airports and train stations remain open.
The lockdown reflects China’s continuing adherence to its “zero-COVID” approach, despite restrictions being eased elsewhere. China set the hard-line tone at the start of the pandemic in 2020 with the 76-day lockdown on the city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected.
The measures have been decried by some Chinese as excessive, although there has been little open defiance. Amid the grumbling, Shanghai authorities have conceded shortcomings in their handling of the surge driven by the omicron variant, after panic buying stripped store shelves of necessities.
“We didn’t prepare sufficiently enough,” Ma Chunlei, a senior Shanghai official said at a news conference Thursday. “We sincerely accept the criticisms from the public and are making efforts to improve it.”
South Korea will ease some of its pandemic restrictions starting next week as officials express cautious hope the worst of its omicron outbreak has passed.
The limit on private social gatherings will be raised from eight to 10 people starting Monday, while restaurants, bars and other indoor spaces can stay open an hour later, until midnight, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Friday.
Officials said most social distancing restrictions could be removed, except for an indoor mask mandate, if the outbreak further slows and the medical response remains stable over the next two weeks.
Kim’s announcement from a government anti-virus meeting came after the country reported a daily average of 316,000 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days, a modest decrease from the average of 357,800 a week before. The one-day record was 621,187 on March 17.
While Kim said the country has likely passed the peak of infections, there’s still worry about the pressure on hospitals, given the week or longer intervals between infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Officials also say the highly transmissible omicron subvariant called BA.2 is slowing the decline in overall infections.
“Fortunately, the outbreak has slowed for the second consecutive week,” Kim said. “But there’s persisting concern about an increase in serious cases and deaths that might come after time lags, the spread of ‘stealth omicron,’ or BA.2, which has become the dominant strain, and an expected increase in travel during spring weather.”
The country has averaged 328 deaths in the past week, including 360 in the latest 24 hours, while around 1,300 virus patients were in serious or critical condition. More than 64% of South Korea’s 2,800 intensive care units designated for COVID-19 treatment were occupied.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said social distancing measures have clearly become less effective because omicron is much more contagious than previous variants of the virus.
“Even if we ease social distancing, the increase in infections is expected to be only around 10 to 20%,” he said during a briefing.
Quarantine requirements for close contacts, hospitalization for mild cases and proof of vaccination or negative tests when entering public spaces were some of the measures eased or lifted earlier.
Total Doses Distributed = 702,957,265. Total Doses Administered = 560,823,729. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 255,534,750. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 217,639,435.
More than 4 in 10 U.S. high school students said they felt persistently sad or hopeless during the pandemic, according to government findings released Thursday.
Several medical groups have warned that pandemic isolation from school closures and lack of social gatherings has taken a toll on young people’s mental health.
“This really gives us the evidence to say with certainty that the pandemic was incredibly disruptive for young people and their families,” said Kathleen Ethier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The reports are based on anonymous online surveys of about 7,700 public and private high school students from 128 schools during the first six months of 2021. It is based on a similar survey the CDC conducts every other year in schools,
Among the findings:
—44% reported feeling persistently sad of hopeless during the past year. A similar survey before COVID-19 hit put the figure at 37%.
—66% said they found it more difficult to complete their schoolwork.
—29% said a parent or other adult in their home lost a job and 11% said they experienced physical abuse by a parent or other adult at home.
—24% said they went hungry during the pandemic because there was not enough food at home.
There likely was some underreporting, especially for certain questions about emotional or physical abuse in the home. Teens might be afraid that an abusive parent or other adult might see their responses, said Ilan Cerna-Turoff, a Columbia University researcher who studies children’s mental health.
CDC officials said that the pandemic did not affect teens equally. LGBT youth reported poorer mental health and more suicide attempts than others. About 75% said they suffered emotional abuse in the home and 20% reported physical abuse. By comparison, half of heterosexual students reported emotional abuse and 10% reported physical abuse, the CDC said.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Germany’s independent vaccination advisory panel is recommending a booster shot with a messenger RNA vaccine for people who have had a full course of four Chinese, Indian and Russian COVID-19 vaccines that aren’t currently approved for use in the European Union.
In a draft recommendation Thursday, the panel, known by its German acronym STIKO, said the advice applies to people given a full course and also a booster of the Chinese Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, the Indian-made Covaxin and Russia’s Sputnik V.
It said that the new booster shot should be administered at least three months after the previous vaccination.
The German panel said that people who have received only a single shot of the four vaccines should start a new vaccination series.
And it added that recipients of other vaccines not cleared by the EU should in general start a new series with a vaccine European authorities have approved.
Scientists believe that mixing and matching vaccines prompts a better immune response.
The BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines have been the mainstay of Germany’s vaccination program. Three other vaccines using different technologies have been cleared for use in the 27-nation EU — the AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax products.
The mRNA vaccines have shown to be better than others at protecting against newer variants like omicron.
The British government is ending the supply of free rapid coronavirus tests to most of the population even though COVID-19 infections remain at record levels, and health officials warn the pandemic could still have nasty surprises in store.
More than 1.7 billion test kits have been handed out in workplaces, pharmacies and by mail over the past year, the government says, under a policy that encouraged people to test themselves regularly as a way to stamp out new outbreaks.
But starting Friday, most people in England will have to buy lateral flow tests from pharmacies or online suppliers.
Lateral flow tests use throat or nose swabs and give results in minutes, but are less accurate than the PCR swab tests used to officially confirm cases of COVID-19.
Tests will remain free for staff in high-risk settings such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and prisons, but under the government’s “Living with COVID” plan most other people in England will now have to pay. Some free testing will continue for several weeks in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Lawmaker Daisy Cooper, health spokeswoman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said scrapping free tests would be another expense for people already coping with surging food and energy prices.
“It is a tax on caring for all those who want to do the right thing and get tested before visiting elderly or vulnerable relatives,” she said.
Critics also argue that the move comes at a dangerous time, with an estimated 1 in 16 people in England infected with the virus, according to the Office for National Statistics. There were 15,632 people in hospital in England with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, the highest number for more than three months.
The number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators remains low, however, and deaths are far below the peaks of previous waves in 2020 and 2021.
Britain has recorded more than 165,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe after Russia. The government lifted all remaining restrictions for England — including mask mandates, mandatory self-isolation for the infectious and testing for international travelers — earlier this year, even as omicron, the most transmissible variant yet, swept in.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is relying largely on vaccination and new treatments to keep the virus in check. Almost 92% of people age 12 and up in the U.K. have had two doses of a vaccine, and more than two-thirds have had a third, booster shot. Fourth doses are being given to the vulnerable and those aged 75 and over.
Jenny Harries, chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency, said the pandemic would “remain unpredictable to a large extent for the next, say, 18 months to two years.”
“We will have to be continuously alert to monitor those rates and to respond appropriately to any new variants,” she said. “But as with other respiratory viruses such as flu… at some point we have to come to terms with that.”
