Lujiazui, a financial zone in Shanghai Photo: VCG

 
The COVID-19 infections have been detected sporadically in Shanghai so far, and the situation remains generally stable, but the risk of another wave of outbreak still can't be ruled out and the city will continue to monitor the epidemic situation closely, Wen Daxiang, director of the Shanghai Health Commission said during an interview program by a local media on Thursday in response to the residents' concerns over another wave of COVID-19 epidemic.

Wen also commented on the status of other major infectious diseases, including influenza, which remains stable generally. With the gradual warming weather, the intensity of influenza epidemic has been declining continuously, he said. 

The number of patients in fever clinics in the previous week in Shanghai has dropped significantly from March, from about 20,000 people per day on average to 6,000 to 7,000 people, according to Wen. The trend of seasonal respiratory and other cases will decline with the warming weather.

The pandemic is still circulating and the virus may continue to mutate, so the risk of another wave of the epidemic cannot be ruled out, Wen said. 

Under the management mechanism of dealing COVID-19 with measures against Class B infectious disease, Shanghai will continue to conduct spot checks on sentinel hospitals and do sampling checks in communities. Experts will analyze the development of the epidemic based on the data and will activate response mechanism once a cluster outbreak is found.

Wen suggested residents to receive COVID-19 vaccines to raise their immunity and reduce the risk of severe illness and death in the future, particularly for elderly residents who are 60 or above years old. 

Following China's downgrade of COVID-19 management in January, the State Council joint epidemic prevention and control mechanism on Wednesday rolled out a guideline for wearing masks in public, stipulating that apart from particular scenarios, masks are no longer mandatory in public venues, including schools, large-scale conferences, and public transport.

High-risk groups, such as the elderly, pregnant women, and those with underlying diseases, are still encouraged to wear masks. In outdoor places like open squares, parks, and on campuses, people are no longer required to wear masks.

Shanghai has been actively deploying services at grass-roots level medical institutions. There are 249 community health service centers, 98 sub-centers, 844 service stations and 1,142 village clinics in the city, which can provide residents with basic diagnosis and treatment, family doctors, public health services, according to the Shanghai authorities on Thursday.