Residents take nucleic acid tests during a lockdown in Shanghai on April 24, 2022. Photo: VCG

Shanghai authorities said on Wednesday that the city is going to relax restrictions over those communities that record no new COVID-19 cases as the epidemic prevention and control measures have shown their effect since a decisive battle against Omicron was launched to curb the virus' spread among communities about a week ago. However, the situation is still severe.

For the regions with no new COVID-19 positive cases detected among communities, certain residents will be allowed to move within certain areas; but those communities with new cases will be still under "static management" with measures including mass COVID-19 screening, epidemiological investigation and disinfection, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai health commission said at Wednesday's press briefing.  

Shanghai will start a new round of mass antigen or nucleic acid COVID-19 testing from Wednesday to Saturday. The first batches of 534 regular nucleic acid sampling sites in the city were announced on Tuesday.

The city, with a population of over 25 million, recorded a total of 535,600 infections from March 1 to Tuesday, Zhao said.

Shanghai has taken nucleic acid samples for over 51 million times, and the positive rate for COVID-19 has declined gradually. The city has allocated nearly 20,000 sampling sites daily during the last five days, with the daily detectability reaching over 5 million tubes, according to the authorities.

As of 9 am Wednesday, over 510,000 close contacts of COVID-19 positive cases have been detected and put under closed-loop quarantine, Zhao said.

Shanghai on Tuesday registered 48 more COVID-19 patient deaths, which took the city's death tally during this wave to 238. Among the 48 cases, their average age was 80.85, and they all died of underlying diseases such as cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction sequelae, coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction, according to Zhao. Only one of them had received a COVID-19 vaccine, said Zhao.

As of Tuesday, the city has registered 244 COVID-19 patients in severe conditions and 27 in critical conditions, said Zhao.

The city on Tuesday registered 1,606 local COVID-19 cases and 11,956 local asymptomatic infections, the Shanghai health commission said on Wednesday. Among the positive cases, 340 and 11,798 asymptomatic cases were detected under closed-loop quarantine.