Shanghai Bungles Basics as Outbreak Pushes Covid Strategy to the Limit

By Ren Huilan, Zhao Tiantian, Mou Yafei, Liu Chang, Nie Yinghao, Xu Zeyi, Zhang Jiawen and Wang Xintong

The Shanghai Pudong New International Expo Center has been converted into a centralized isolation and treatment center. Photo: VCG

Shanghai is running short of medical staff and supplies amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, as some patients in quarantine facilities struggle to access medical care and daily necessities and others awaiting transfer are stranded at home.

The city of 25 million, once a model in China’s anti-Covid fight, is finding it hard to contain its worst ever outbreak of Covid-19, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant. Under China’s zero Covid approach, authorities have had to escalate lockdown measures more than once. They have also ramped up the supply of quarantine facilities to isolate Covid-19 patients and their close contacts, by converting existing buildings and constructing new facilities.