Shanghai authorities are tightening Covid-19 restrictions again after six weeks of strict lockdown. Beijing officials have renewed efforts to eradicate the virus, sparking a new wave of frustration among the people.
Notices issued in several districts said residents were ordered to stay home and are barred from receiving nonessential deliveries as part of a quiet period lasting at least until Wednesday.
The tightened measures could be extended depending on the results of mass testing, the notices said.
Residential communities and grass-roots authorities have expanded the scope of people being taken into centralized quarantine while cutting off deliveries of non-essentials to swaths of the city, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Shanghai on Monday reported 3,947 cases over the previous 24 hours, almost all of them without symptoms, along with 11 deaths. The number of cases being reported has been, overall, falling.
Residents have been sharing experiences of being forced into centralised quarantine on social media platforms like Weibo. Reportedly even if one active case is detected, the entire apartment block is placed into quarantine.
Two Shanghai residents reached through social media said they'd had no prior notice of the new restrictions, which they were told could last for up to a week.
We're unprepared," said Zhang Chen, a researcher with a technology company. I packed my luggage thinking it would be my turn next" to be taken to a quarantine facility.
I don't know what will happen in May, but after the lockdown, I think I'll need psychological help," Zhang said.
A marketing professional in the western Pudong district said quality of life has been declining even as living expenses continue to rise under lockdown.
The escalation in methods to curb the spread of the virus, comes after Xi Jinping, on Thursday said that any doubt or denial of our country's epidemic prevention policies will not be tolerated.
– With PTI inputs
