Shanghai is in its third day of lockdown as part of an effort to stop the virus spreading. The city’s financial and industrial district of Pudong is the centre of a mass lockdown.
Residents in the east have been locked down since Monday. Locking down a major metropolis like Shanghai full-scale would result in a 4% reduction in the national real gross domestic product.
On Wednesday Shanghai reported a record 5,656 asymptomatic COVID cases and 326 symptomatic cases for March 29. Several residents living in western districts on Tuesday received notice from their housing committees that they would be stopped from leaving their compounds for the next seven days.
Public transport has been suspended in the southwestern district of Minhang, home to more than 2.5 million people, until April 5.
