An elderly woman receives COVID-19 vaccine booster in Shanghai. Photo: VCG

Shanghai authorities urged to prioritize the treatment of severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients to reduce the number of severe cases and mortality rate, as the city on Wednesday reported seven more COVID-19 patient deaths, adding to a total number of 17 amid this around of Omicron outbreak.

As of Tuesday, there have been 52 COVID-19 patients in critical conditions, Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai health authority, said at Wednesday's press briefing. The seven local fatalities include two patients aged below 60 and five above 70, who all had underlying diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease, heart failure and hypertension, Wu said.

Five of them hadn't received any COVID-19 vaccines, and the seven patients' symptoms worsened when they were admitted to hospital. The direct causes of their deaths were underlying diseases, according to Wu.

On Tuesday Shanghai registered 2,494 local COVID-19 cases and 16,407 local asymptomatic infections. Over 27,000 people have been discharged from the hospitals or released from medical observation on Tuesday, surpassing the daily new tally, the authorities said in Wednesday's press briefing.

During an inspection on COVID-19 prevention and control in Jiading district of the city on Tuesday, Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said that Shanghai will continue to adhere to the dynamic zero-COVID strategy and spare no efforts to treat severe and critically ill patients, ensuring a sufficient supply of commodities to local residents, whilst also aiming to curb the virus spread among communities. 

"The treatment of severe and critically ill COVID-19 patients should be prioritized and the city should insist on classified diagnosis and treatment systems to effectively reduce the number of severe cases and the mortality rate, sparing no effort to save lives," Gong said. Gong also called for more care toward vulnerable groups including seniors.  

COVID-19 community transmission has been effectively contained in Shanghai's Jinshan and Chongming districts, this is the first time that two districts in the city have curbed community transmission since the beginning of the Omicron outbreak in March, according to the authorities.

The epidemic in the city has been on the decline in recent days, Wu said, noting that the virus' spread in communities has been effectively contained.  

Shanghai has divided the city into areas of three categories and adjusted the region-levels on Tuesday based on nucleic acid test results and risks. A total of 16,650 areas were classified as "locked down," involving over 11.87 million residents, 4 million down from the previous classification, according to the authorities.