City to adopt 3-level control measures after phased lockdown

Community staff and volunteers deliver food and supplies to residents at a local community during lockdown.

After a new round of COVID-19 screenings, the lockdown will be initially lifted in some communities and sites in Shanghai that report no positive cases within two weeks, under a strict ban on gatherings.

The city government announced its classified follow-up prevention and control measures on Saturday, after its prolonged phased lockdown since March 28.

Another round of citywide polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests will be launched. Based on the results and risky levels, local areas will be classified as "locked-down," "controlled" or "precautionary," Shanghai vice mayor Zong Ming said.

"The fight against the pandemic has reached the most critical moment, so we must keep reducing movements and imposing strict control and management to block the transmission of the virus and achieve dynamic zero-COVID at the community level," Zong told the city's daily coronavirus press briefing.

"Persistence will lead to the final victory," she said. The vice mayor noted that the city government will stick to the "dynamic zero-COVID" policy "unwaveringly."

The three-level prevention and control measures were once implemented in Pudong and other nearby regions in the unit of subdistrict and town, following the city's phase-I lockdown. No precautionary area was listed.

The updated policy reduces the size of the classified areas to a single neighborhood, village or company.

Lights from myriad families in Puxi during the city's lockdown.

Precautionary areas: The residential communities, villages, companies or sites that have reported no positive COVID-19 cases within the last 14 days. People can move around within the district they live in, but gatherings will be strictly limited.

Controlled areas: The residential communities, villages, companies or sites that have reported no positive COVID-19 cases within the last seven days.

Residents are asked to conduct a weeklong self-health monitoring. They are allowed to move around within their neighborhoods and coordinate with their neighbors to pick up online orders from designated areas.

Locked-down areas: The residential communities, villages, companies or sites that have reported positive cases within a week. A seven-day lockdown will be conducted and residents are required to stay at home.

The controlled and locked-down areas can be adjusted according to the situation of the pandemic.

Zong asked to further improve the life supply guarantee and emergency medical services for citizens during the ongoing lockdown.

The emergency departments of local hospitals and medical centers must keep open. The connection between local communities and hospitals will be enhanced to offer timely treatment for patients with acute diseases as well as special groups.

An emotion-choked Zong said between sobs that the government thanked the citizens and front-line COVID-19 prevention workers, who have been standing fast and overcoming all kinds of difficulties since the resurgence of the highly-contagious Omicron variant on March.

"We have not done our work well enough, and there is still a big gap from everyone's expectations," Zong said. "We will do our best to improve."

A solitary water truck cleans an empty street during the city's lockdown.