China's Shanghai reports first COVID deaths since start of lockdown

Shanghai, April 18: Amid the COVID rising crisis, China's economic hub Shanghai reported the first deaths of the COVID-19 outbreak, along with 2,417 local confirmed coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, according to a media report on Monday. Three people, who died were aged between 89 and 91 and all had underlying diseases.

 

 

"Shanghai registered 2,417 local confirmed COVID19 cases and 19,831 local asymptomatic carriers on Sunday when three deaths were reported, who are seniors aged between 89 and 91, with severe underlying disease," Global Times said in a Tweet.

 

 

The municipal health commission said on Sunday said that Shanghai has reported 3,238 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. Xinhua News Agency reported that the city also recorded 21,582 local asymptomatic carriers during that period, as per commission. Across China, cities are locking down their residents, supply lines are rupturing, and officials are scrambling to secure the movement of basic goods -- as its largest ever recorded outbreak of COVID-19 threatens to spiral into a national crisis of the government's own making.

 

At least 44 Chinese cities are under either a full or partial lockdown as authorities persist in trying to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, according to a report from investment bank Nomura and CNN's own reporting as of Thursday. In Shanghai, the epicentre of the country's latest outbreak, scenes once unimaginable for the hyper-modern financial capital have become part of the daily struggle for 25 million people.