Shanghai reports first Covid deaths during current wave

China on Monday reported the first slew of fatalities in Shanghai due to the ongoing Covid-19 surge in the city where the Omicron variant continues to paralyse the country’s business hub of 26 million people. Three deaths due to Covid-19 were reported on Sunday in Shanghai, China’s National Health Commission reported on Monday.

Three unvaccinated residents—all elderly, aged 89 to 91 years, with underlying ailments—died, out of 372,000 infected cases since March 1, according to data released on Monday, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.

According to its report, the mainland on Sunday reported 2,723 locally-transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 2,417 were in Shanghai.

Shanghai also reported 19,831 locally-transmitted asymptomatic infections of the novel coronavirus Sunday, out of a total of 20,639 local asymptomatic carriers newly identified on the mainland, the Commission report said.

Apart from Shanghai, 15 other provincial-level regions on the mainland saw new local Covid-19 cases, including 166 in the north-eastern province of Jilin, it said. A total of 1,637 Covid-19 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovery on the Chinese mainland on Sunday, said the daily report.

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That brought the mainland's total number of Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals after recovery to 151,407 as of Sunday.

Over the past day, 33,882 close contacts were released from medical observation on the mainland, the report said.

The first deaths have been reported as local authorities embarked on a plan to gradually restore production and business activity in China’s commercial centre after more than two weeks of lockdown. On Sunday, Shanghai local government issued the first edition of epidemic prevention guidelines for the city's industrial enterprises to resume production.

The purpose of the guidelines is to coordinate epidemic control efforts and social economic development.

Released by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, the guidelines stipulated that all district governments and authorities at different levels should actively support enterprises to resume operations and guide their epidemic prevention work using a case-by-case approach, state-run Global Times reported.