Beijing [China], May 13 (ANI): Witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China on Thursday reported 312 confirmed local COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
Of the new local cases, 227 infections were reported in China’s financial hub Shanghai, Xinhua reported.
Shanghai also reported 1,869 locally transmitted asymptomatic infections, out of a total of 2,140 such cases newly identified on the mainland.
On Thursday, two deaths from COVID-19 were reported in Shanghai, as per Xinhua.
Apart from Shanghai, seven other provincial-level regions on the mainland saw new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including 42 in Beijing and 15 in Henan.
As the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread in more and more cities in China, questions are mounting over the country’s much-publicized “zero-covid” strategy that the government credited for bringing the country out of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the ongoing severe lockdown restrictions in China’s Shanghai to contain the spread of COVID-19 has drastically affected the day-to-day lives of the people due to food shortage.
Further, in a major escalation of COVID-19 restrictions amid a surge in Omicron variant cases, Beijing has banned all restaurant dining, shut down universal studios and ordered residents to provide proof of a negative Covid test to enter public venues.
According to reports, Shanghai residents have also been falling sick after consuming some of the food supplies because of the distribution of stale food by the authorities amid the city’s COVID-19 lockdown.
The city’s poor handling of the country’s worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years has raised public distrust in the authorities and anger at the government. (ANI)