An emerging outbreak of Covid-19 cases in Shanghai has prompted officials to initiate mass testing in more than half of the city's neighborhoods, raising concerns of further economic disruptions in the country.
People wait in line for a screening at a hospital.
A karaoke bar in the city has been linked to an outbreak that saw 24 new cases on Tuesday.
Mass testing has begun in nine of the 16 districts of the city.
Fears of another major lock-down in China's financial hub caused the CSI 300 index to fall by more than 1% in the afternoon.
The city of Xi'an, which saw 13 million residents endure a month-long lockdown earlier this year, has ordered public venues like dine-in restaurants, bars, cinemas and gyms to close due to recent cases of highly infectious BA.5 omicron sub.
592. China has reported the total number of Covid deaths since the beginning of the year. The number is much smaller than death tolls reported in Europe and the United States, but it is still significant.
Despite international skepticism, economic pain and even rare public protests at home, Chinese officials have stuck to their so-called "dynamic zero- Covid" approach to the epidemic. Chinese officials say their goal is to completely eliminate the local spread of the virus and they have done so by imposing stringent lockdowns and mass testing of residents in cities where flare-ups are detected This approach was put to the test earlier this year when the largest city in China faced its worst outbreak since the beginning of the Pandemic. There was a lot of dissent from residents who were facing food shortages and were not happy with the way the government was handling the situation. The zero-covid approach is supported by China's President, who says the country must be prepared to deal with some short-term economic pain instead of harming people's safety and physical health China has given over 3.4 billion vaccine doses so far with almost all of its population getting at least two doses. According to data from Hong Kong, China's Sinovac shot may be less effective than Western vaccines.
There is a new round of mass COVID-19 testing.
China battles karaoke COVID clusters in other places.
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