China began its most extensive COVID lockdown in two years Monday to conduct mass testing and control a growing outbreak in Shanghai as part of the nation's “zero-COVID” strategy.
Shanghai, China's financial capital and largest city with 26 million people, had managed its smaller previous outbreaks with limited lockdowns.
The citywide lockdown that is being conducted in two phases will be China's most extensive since the central city of Wuhan confined its entire population for 76 days in early 2020.
Shanghai's Pudong financial district and nearby areas will be locked down from Monday to Friday as mass testing gets underway. In the second phase of the lockdown, the vast downtown area west of the Huangpu River that divides the city will start its own five-day lockdown Friday.
Residents will be required to stay home and deliveries will be left at checkpoints to ensure no contact. All non-essential business will be closed and public transport will remain suspended.
Shanghai detected 96 new local infections and 4,381 asymptomatic cases of infection on Tuesday.
China has reported more than 56,000 confirmed cases nationwide this month.
China has called its long-standing “zero-tolerance” approach the most economical and effective prevention strategy against COVID-19.