China announced Shanghai would enter a staggered lockdown, starting today, marking the biggest city-wide lockdown in the People’s Republic since the Covid outbreak began more than two years ago. The authorities have decided to split Shanghai in half using the Huangpu River for the new two-part lockdown.
The city recorded 2,631 new asymptomatic cases on Saturday, which accounted for nearly 60% of China’s total new asymptomatic cases that day, plus 47 new cases with symptoms.
Pudong, the eastern part of the city, is in lockdown from today through to Friday as mass testing gets underway, while the western area, Puxi, will lock down between April 1 and 5.
Public transport will be suspended as will work at most factories. However, essential workers, including port labour, will be exempt from the stay-at-home order.
For shipping, congestion at the port already very high is expected to increase in the coming days, while overseas, terminals in Europe and North America will have to brace for an even larger whiplash effect when the city regains normal productivity – and comes as global supply chains absorb the fallout from a seven-day lockdown in Shenzhen to the south earlier this month.
