Shanghai erects metal barriers in fight against COVID-19

Volunteers and government workers in Shanghai erected metal barriers in multiple districts to block off small streets and entrances to apartment complexes, as China hardens its strict "zero-COVID" approach in its largest city despite growing complaints from residents.To get more Shanghai news, you can visit shine news official website.

The Chinese financial hub reported 51 new deaths among its COVID-19 patients on April 24, up from 39 the day before, Shanghai's local government said.

Shanghai is currently battling China's largest COVID-19 outbreak. The first officially confirmed deaths of the current outbreak were reported only a week ago.

In the city's financial district, Pudong, the barriers — thin metal sheets or mesh fences — were put up in several neighbourhoods under a local government directive, according to Caixin, a Chinese business media outlet.Buildings where COVID-19 cases were found were sealed up, with a small opening for pandemic-prevention workers to pass through.

Shanghai also recorded 16,983 new local asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on April 24, down from 19,657 a day earlier.

The number of confirmed symptomatic infections stood at 2,472, up from 1,401 the previous day.

In Beijing, authorities announced a mass testing starting Monday of Chaoyang district, home to more than 3 million people in the Chinese capital.

The announcement set off panic buying on Sunday evening, with vegetables, eggs, soy sauce and other items wiped off grocery shelves.A fresh outbreak has infected at least 41 people, including 26 in Chaoyang district, state broadcaster CGTN reported.

China reported 21,796 new community transmitted COVID-19 infections on Sunday, with the vast majority being asymptomatic cases in Shanghai.

Across the country, many cities and provinces have enforced some version of a lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.

The latest outbreak — driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant — has spread nationwide, but has been particularly large in Shanghai.

That city, a financial hub with 25 million residents, has counted hundreds of thousands of cases but fewer than 100 deaths since the outbreak began nearly two months ago.On social media, people posted videos of the new barriers being put up on Saturday, with some expressing anger over the measures.

In one video, residents leaving a building in Shanghai's Xuhui district broke down the mesh fence barricade at their front entrance and went looking for the security guard they believed to be responsible for putting it up.

Shanghai is using a tiered system, in which neighbourhoods are divided into three categories based on the risk of transmission.

Those in the first category face the strictest COVID-19 controls and were the main target of the heightened measures.

In the third category, some buildings allow people to leave their homes and visit public areas.