The city of Shanghai announced on Tuesday seven new deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing to 10 the total of deaths in the Chinese economic capital confined since the beginning of the month, where companies like Tesla have resumed work.
An epidemic outbreak
With supply chains blocked by the restrictions, companies had to halt production in the metropolis of 25 million people after the lockdown was introduced.
Local authorities, like the rest of China and contrary to many countries that opt for cohabitation with the virus and lift restrictions, continue to follow a "zero Covid" policy in the face of the worst epidemic outbreak in China since the outbreak of Covid-19 at the end of 2019.
20,000 daily cases
The town hall of Shanghai had reported its first three deaths on Monday, a surprisingly light toll in a city which counts some 20,000 contaminations every day.
Since the start of the epidemic, initially detected in central China at the end of 2019, Beijing has managed to limit the total toll to less than 5,000 dead and less than 190,000 contaminations, if we stick to official figures, much lower than international counts.
But the Omicron variant hit the inhabitants of Shanghai hard, placed under confinement for an indefinite period, in sometimes Spartan conditions.
The low mortality is a concern, especially since vaccination rates are low among the oldest.
The seven people who died in the past 24 hours were between the ages of 60 and 101 and suffered from pre-existing conditions, according to the town hall.
None were vaccinated.
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