Citizens urged to hang in there and follow rules
Citizens shop at a local supermarket in Fengxian District.
All Shanghai's COVID-19 infection cases on Friday were found among those who were already under quarantine or control measures, the first time since the city's pandemic has been trending downwards.
Apart from 985 confirmed patients who were previously asymptomatic infections, all the rest of the 9,196 confirmed and asymptomatic cases were found during "close-loop quarantine and control" management, said Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission.
It means no positive case was detected on Friday during community PCR screening among local at-risk groups.
"Citizens must hang in there and strictly follow the rules of the three-area designation to consolidate 'hard earned fruits'," Zhao told the city's daily COVID-19 press briefing.
He noted the situation remains tough and complicated, so tightened control measures at communities are still necessary.
As one of the new measures, the cost of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests at local public hospitals will be reduced to 25 yuan from Sunday from 28 yuan previously to reduce pandemic prevention and social operation costs.
Citizens shop at a local supermarket in Fengxian District.
The city government has announced PCR tests will be free of charge from Sunday to June 30 to relieve the financial pressure on both residents and enterprises.
According to the city's re-designated locked-down, controlled and precautionary areas on Friday, a total of 13.78 million Shanghai residents, 11 percent more than that of Thursday, are now living in the 49,651 precautionary communities, villages, companies or sites, where no COVID-19 case was reported in the past two weeks.
People in the precautionary areas are allowed to move around within their subdistricts or towns, but according to a previous official explanation, the district or subdistrict and town government can adjust the control and management measures depending on the pandemic situation.
For instance, if there are many locked-down areas neighboring precautionary regions, the district governments can step up management and control measures, according to the commission.
Some 4.44 million residents remain under lockdown at some 15,895 locked down areas, a decrease of 830,000 compared with the last designation on Thursday, said Zhao.
The remaining 5.39 million people are now within controlled areas, meaning they can go downstairs and walk around within their communities.
Fresh vegetables at a local supermarket in Fengxian District.
If there are many locked down areas neighboring precautionary regions, the district governments can step up management and control measures.
Shanghai Health Commission
Meanwhile, local seniors who can, but have yet to receive COVID-19 vaccines are asked to get the jabs as soon as possible. Vaccination services have been restored at multiple local districts.
Shanghai reported 47 COVID-19 deaths on Friday – five fewer than Thursday – bringing the total since the resurgence began to 384, Zhao said.
The average age of Friday's fatalities was 82.4 years. All had severe underlying conditions such as advanced cancers. Only three of them had been vaccinated.
Of the COVID-19 patients, 356 have severe symptoms and 57 are in critical condition.
Meanwhile, 16,412 COVID-19 patients were discharged from local designated and makeshift hospitals on Friday after recovering.
Shanghai has had 23,000 beds at eight city-level and 32 regional COVID-19 designated hospitals, along with about 300,000 beds at makeshift hospitals.
More than 10,000 local medical workers along with nearly 30,000 medics from outside Shanghai are working at the designated and makeshift hospitals, Zhao said.
Shoppers are asked to scan their health codes before entering the supermarket.
