Shanghai reports more deaths amid falling Covid cases

Shanghai’s grim battle with the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak continued with seven more infection-related deaths and nearly 19,000 new cases reported in the Chinese financial hub on Wednesday for the day before.

Shanghai reported 2,494 locally transmitted symptomatic Covid-19 cases and 16,407 local asymptomatic carriers for Tuesday, the municipal health commission said on Wednesday. Overall, China reported 17,066 asymptomatic Covid-19 cases and 2,753 symptomatic local cases.

With the number of new Covid-19 cases falling, a city official said on Wednesday that Shanghai, a city of some 25 million residents, has brought virus transmission outside quarantined areas down to zero in two city districts and the city’s Covid-19 outbreak is seeing a downward trend.

Number of residents staying in the city’s highest-risk “sealed areas”, who are completely locked down, has reduced significantly, official Wu Qianyu said at a daily press conference.

The new deaths – reported after weeks of the Covid-19 flare-up -- however, mean that measures to control the spread will continue to be stringent.

At least 17 Shanghai residents have died of Covid-19 in the last three days though reports have said the number could be higher especially among the elderly with comorbidities.

The seven who died on Tuesday included two under the age of 60, while the remaining were more than 70 years old. All, according to health authorities, had underlying health conditions and their condition worsened once admitted to the hospital.

The number is likely to go up with more than 50 patients critically ill.

The rate of vaccination among the elderly in Shanghai is a worry for China.

On Friday, Shanghai government officials said that only 62% of the city’s 3.6 million elderly - aged 60 and above - were fully vaccinated, and the rate among those aged above 80 years old is only 15%.

“The rate of those getting booster shots accounts for merely 38 percent,” a state media report said.

Shanghai has recorded over 300,000 new cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of March.

Wu Liangyou, from the national health commission (NHC), said that from March 1 to April 18, China has logged 497,214 cases of local infections, reported from all its provinces and regions except the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) -- many more than what China had recorded in initial phase of the pandemic in early 2020.

“We should be mentally prepared for a long fight against Covid, but also have the confidence to win,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Tuesday.

“At the same time, we shouldn’t be blinded by an overly positive outlook,” Wu added.

Wu added that China should have the ability to carry out short-term nucleic acid screening work in the jurisdiction where the epidemic is located, and strengthen the construction of medical facilities to ensure that medical services can be obtained when the number of patients increases in a short period of time.

Isolation facilities need to be expanded to ensure that those with asymptomatic infections and mild cases, as well as close contacts, have facilities available, he said.