With cases in China at their highest level in 2 years due to the more transmissible Omicron COVID-19 variant, officials in China's biggest city, Shanghai, yesterday announced a two-part lockdown to do mass testing.In US developments, White House momentum supporting second booster shots gained steam, but details on timing and funding are still murky.Shanghai lockdown comes with mass testingChina today reported 6,215 new cases, including 4,996 asymptomatic infections, which reflect different situations in different parts of the country.
About 70% of the asymptomatic cases are in Shanghai, where city health officials had been trying to forego a larger lockdown by doing district-by-district mass testing.The lockdown, thought to be the most extensive in China since the Wuhan lockdown early in the pandemic, will consist of two phases, according to the Associated Press.
First, the financial district and surrounding areas of the city of 28 million people will begin a lockdown today that will be in effect until Apr 1.Then the downtown area west of the Huangpu River will begin a lockdown.
Media reports over the weekend showed residents panic-buying and store shelves picked clean.Of the new symptomatic cases, in contrast, 89% are in Jilin province, mostly in two of its largest cities, Jilin City and Changchun.Elsewhere, cases continue to decline in Hong Kong, with 7,685 cases reported, according to the Centre for Health Protection.And in South Korea, cases have declined for 4 days in a row, with health officials estimating that the country's cases may have peaked on Mar 16, according to the The Korea Herald.