COVID-19 viral outbreak in Shanghai in 2022
A COVID-19 outbreak in the city of Shanghai, China began on February 28, 2022, and ended on August 7, 2022. The outbreak was caused by the Omicron variant and became the most widespread in Shanghai since the pandemic began two years prior. Authorities responded with mass COVID-19 testing and a strict lockdown of the city in an effort to uphold China's zero-COVID policy; the latter marked the largest one in the country since the lockdown of Hubei in early 2020. The outbreak caused substantial economic and social disruption across Shanghai with consequences felt elsewhere, and led to the spread of COVID-19 to other parts of China, including Beijing, Guangdong, and Hunan.
Background.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019. It began in early 2020 as an outbreak in Hubei province, China, which prompted a strict lockdown. The Chinese government's response since then has been to pursue a zero-COVID strategy, aiming to eliminate the virus altogether. However, the increased transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant that emerged in late 2021 has posed challenges.
Since 2020, nearly 40% of international arrivals to China came through Shanghai. Shanghai also had a relatively large number of imported cases. By March 14, the number of cases reported as coming from outside mainland China was 4345, compared to 473 local cases. Shanghai authorities had previously taken a "more relaxed" approach to the pandemic compared to other Chinese cities. Doctor Zhang Wenhong of the Shanghai Medical Treatment Expert Group, said the control of COVID-19 in Shanghai is like "catching a mouse in the ceramic shop", and said maintaining a normal manufacturing industry and public life is important. Due to the Omicron variant, Shanghai's COVID-19 response had been challenged.
Outbreak.
On February 28, a 56-year-old vaccinated woman came to with a fever and was confirmed positive on March 1. This case became patient zero in the outbreak. After confirmation of her case, her dance group had at least 8 people test positive as well.
After confirming a positive diagnosis, the risk levels of some areas of Shanghai were raised from "low risk" to "middle risk". According to Shanghai's information office, the main source for the spread of the outbreak was the , a previously designated quarantine site for inbound travelers. In response, the was converted into a temporary hospital on March 26, 2022. By March 27, just before Shanghai started area-separated testing, a total of 16,013 people had tested positive for COVID-19. Additional temporary quarantine centers in the Shanghai New International Expo Center opened on none }}.
By April 8, there had been a total of 131,524 people tested positive, with a single severe case. About 90 percent of the cases were "asymptomatic".
By April 17, according to China National Radio, Shanghai had 16 severe cases, all having pre-existing health conditions, with only 1 of them being vaccinated. On the same day, officials reported 3 deaths of COVID-19 infected patients, with all deaths also being linked to other underlying health conditions, such as diabetes. On April 18, officials reported 7 more deaths with ages ranging from 60 to 101; 6 of them were aged above 70.
On April 22, officials announced they would escalate COVID lockdown restrictions and further tighten lockdown measures. Some of the new measures include evacuating people to disinfect their homes and placing electronic door alarms to warn if infected people are trying to leave.
By April 30, officially all of the deaths were caused by other severe symptoms. On the same day, the first "fangcang" quarantine hospital ("fang1cang1 方舱," literally "portable building") was officially closed.
Government response to the outbreak.
Lockdown.
On February 28, 2022, introduction of travel restrictions was announced by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and negative PCR testing within 48 hours of the travel became mandatory. In addition to the negative PCR testing, travel from "control area" to "prevention area" was conditioned by the 14 days mandatory quarantine at its own residence (quarantine in commercial facilities such as hotel does not qualify) within the "prevention area". On March 15, Civil Aviation Administration of China announced that the international flights into Shanghai shall be diverted to other cities.
Shanghai decided to adopt "area-separated and batch-separated control" (Chinese: 分区分批防控) starting on March 28. On March 27, many markets got crowded, with some scholars arguing these conditions were due to city closure. This was extended on April 1. Some media suspected that cases were underreported. Wang Keyu, a staff member at Huashan Hospital stated that (locally-available) COVID-19 vaccines offered weak protection against the Omicron variant, and that a wide range of COVID-19 testing control was important and necessary. By March 29, over 9.1 million people had been tested by roughly 17,000 testers in roughly 6,300 testing areas. By April 1, over 18 million people had been tested.
Since April 1, most areas of Shanghai are under three-level control. The levels includes "closed area" (), "control area" (), and "prevention area" () and typically spans the size of a residential complex, later (in June) granulizing into individual buildings.
On April 5, the lockdown was expanded to encompass the entire city, affecting the population of 25 million. On April 11, Shanghai published the list of closed areas, control areas, and prevention areas. On April 11, Shanghai officially announced all areas are under three-level control and clarified. Closed area contains people who tested positive for COVID-19 in the neighborhood, the "7-7" quarantine policy is required to follow, during 7-day closing period, if there was no people who tested positive, the restriction will be the same as the restrictions of a "control area". People in control areas can, with limit, collect essential supplies within the neighborhood. Neighborhoods which are listed as prevention areas have no reported case within 14 days. People in prevention areas should only travel within the street. In practice, additional restrictions are levied by the local residents' committee.
Since April 22, Shanghai officials said Shanghai have to follow the "static management" () policy
On April 27, Shanghai officials announced that some hospitals in Shanghai will temporarily suspend their service.
On May 6, multiple areas (including "prevention areas") was put into a so-called "silent period" (), banning all entry and exit, including delivery shipment. The stated rationale was that some positive cases appeared in prevention areas, and for a "final assault" () on the case count. On May 17, another wave of "silencing" started, this time spanning the entirety of multiple districts, again under the name of a "final assault".
On May 6, In Shanghai, which is entering its second month of lockdown, city officials said cases have been declining since Apr 22 and its outbreak is under control.
From May 29, plans were announced to ease the lockdown on June 1. The adjustment entails:
The adjustments were made to "promote epidemic prevention and control as well as economic and social development, and resume work and a return to normal life," the city official added in the May 29 press conference. City officials also emphasized that the term "lifting the lockdown" () is not to be used, as "static management" is not "lockdown" ().
The lockdown was lifted at midnight June 1, with many rushing to the grocery store to restock on food. Shanghai declared that it would do its best to recover the losses caused by the epidemic.
On June 3, four neighborhoods in Jing'an and Pudong were put back into "closed" lockdown and designated as "mid-risk" due to seven new cases found the prior day. On June 7, some more areas are restricted to "closed" area.
In early July, many cases reported is related to a person who visited illegally operated KTV.
Mass testing and Isolation.
On March 4, Shanghai instituted a policy of mass COVID testing. In every building with a positive COVID-19 case, all residents were required to undertake individual "nucleic acid" COVID tests. Other areas undertook pooled COVID-19 testing.
Shanghai residents were required to undertake nucleic acid tests throughout the lockdown, ranging from multiple times per week to once per day. Tests were initially posted on the Health Cloud APP, but over the course of the lockdown migrated to mini programs on Alipay or WeChat. Tests were required for all regions regardless of risk, and would generate a colored health code ("jian4kang1 ma3" 健康码). Each district was responsible for implementing their own system around the code Green codes were issued to people with negative antigen tests, yellow for close contacts of positive cases or those who did not test, and red for positive cases. Enforcement of health codes was left up to individual districts and communities; some locations forbade residents from leaving their neighborhoods regardless of the health code.
Residents that refused COVID testing would see their health code turned red. Some neighborhoods threatened permanent red-code status for those who refused or resisted transportation to a quarantine center, with one location promising on April 12 that such people would "never be rehabilitated" (永不摘帽).
Shanghai authorities converted schools, residential buildings and other structures into quarantine facilities when designated facilities ran short on space.
Education.
As the caseload in the outbreak was growing, there were messages like "Shanghai will stop school" on Weibo. On March 8, a Shanghai official denied the possibility, but for students absent due to COVID-19 the platform "Air Class" would allow for education to continue. On March 12, in-person school was suspended, with students able to participate using platforms such as "Shanghai V-Class" or "Shanghai Education" instead. On May 7, Official announced the National College Entrance Examination in Shanghai will be extended to June, Senior High School Entrance Examination in Shanghai will extend to July, with lab and English speaking test section being removed and counted as full credit toward final score.
Shanghai Ministry of Education stated all middle and high school student could come to school before June 14.
Transportation.
On April 13, the Public Security Bureau of Shanghai announced that people in prevention areas must not enter "closing areas"; nonessential automobiles would also be prohibited.
Law enforcement.
On March 22, two people posted information on a group chat saying Shanghai was about to perform a "city closure"(feng1cheng2 封城). The next day, the public security bureau of Shanghai investigated both for the crime of posting false information intentionally. On March 26, , the vice-principal of Shanghai Medical College stated that Shanghai would not go into lockdown because of how much the city contributed to the economy of China.
In general, Mainland China has strict laws controlling crime related to pandemic management. According to Chinese jurist Luo Xiang's "Criminal Law Textbook", people who don't obey basic isolation rules when they know they have tested positive for COVID-19 have committed the crime of harming public safety (Chinese: 以危险方法危害公共安全罪). Other people who don't obey isolation rules but caused heavy losses may get accused of the crime of distraction of disease prevention (Chinese: 妨碍传染病防治罪). People who post allegedly false content about COVID-19 control policies may be accused of the crime of posting false information (Chinese: 编造、故意传播虚假信息罪).
On April 18, the Public Security Bureau of Shanghai posted that the message "The women who gave preterm birth failed to ask for help and died because of hemorrhage" was false information. The women gave natural birth and were sent to a hospital on time and successfully gave birth. The publisher Zhang had been captured.
There have been cases of fraud and illegal marketing during the Shanghai lockdown.
On April 16, the legal representative of a medical company was arrested for selling 29,000 masks that did not meet health standards.
On April 19, a man was arrested for selling rotten pork for over 320,000 yuan.
Impacts.
The outbreak and the strict response had significant economic impacts. Oil prices fell globally. By mid-April, the lockdown had led to Shanghai residents complaining of food shortages.
On April 12, the United States ordered all nonessential workers at the Shanghai consulate to leave.
During late March, Zhang Wenhong, a doctor who made many speeches during the pandemic, has been absent for a few events, some media suspect that this is a "sign" made by Shanghai government.
Popular culture depictions.
After the outbreak, artist Wang Yuanchao created the Shanghainese-language song "Steamed Eggs with Clams" (Chinese: ), which described how people in Shanghai work together to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The song got considerable attention on the internet upon its publication. On March 27, the song "First Snap Up Groceries, Then Do Nucleic Acid" (Chinese: ) was published on the WeChat Public Account; it got over 100,000 views in the first ten minutes after being published.