Barely deconfined, already reconfigured?

The authorities in Shanghai asked, Thursday, June 9, some of the inhabitants to stay at home pending the results of a new major screening campaign for Covid-19.

The populations concerned are those of eight districts out of the sixteen that make up the city.

These tests, which will be conducted on Saturday June 11 and Sunday June 12, will concern more than half of the 26 million inhabitants of China's economic lung.

These measures, the announcement of which was unexpected, were decided after the discovery of a dozen new cases of Covid-19 in this city, which had barely emerged from very strict confinement.

After the easing of the previous confinement on June 1, the authorities maintained measures to control the health situation – among them the need to present a negative test to access shopping centres, offices and public transport.

The "zero Covid" above all

At least three new cases of contamination seem linked to a hair salon in the city center – a sign which had just reopened its doors, underlines the Financial Times.

Local authorities have launched an investigation to determine whether this sign had complied with the health measures put in place to prevent the spread of the Sars-CoV-1 virus.

Several shopping streets have also been completely closed after the discovery of cases which appear to be linked to bars located in these arteries popular with the local population. 

Read also on France 24: Covid-19: in Shanghai, return to a not so normal life after two months of confinement

The decision to resort to a new massive screening campaign while requiring some of the city's residents to stay at home while analyzing the results testifies to the fact that China is committed to its controversial "zero Covid" strategy.

The very long confinement imposed on Shanghai in recent months has left its mark.

It had given rise to a rare protest movement within the population against measures considered to be particularly severe.

This policy has also had a significant economic cost, especially since Shanghai is one of the main starting points for Chinese exports and the country's largest financial centre. 

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