China extends lockdown for 26 mln people in Shanghai after new COVID outbreak

Shanghai authorities decided to extend a lockdown which covered all the 26 million people living in the financial centre of the city. Such measure was implemented after a massive testing among the inhabitants revealed new COVID outbreak.

The city-wide testing that COVID-19 cases surge to more than 13,000 amid growing public anger over quarantine rules. The lockdown now covers the entire city after restrictions in its western districts were extended.

Chinese media sat that those measures are the biggest medical operation since the shutdown of Wuhan during the first coronavirus outbreak in the beginning of 2020.

"Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage. We must adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearance without hesitation, without wavering," Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission, said.