China tackles growing Covid outbreak with lockdown and testing in Shanghai

Volunteers bring in necessities for residents under lockdown in shanghai (Wang Yanting/Xinhua via AP)

China began its most extensive coronavirus lockdown in two years on Monday to conduct mass testing and control a growing outbreak in Shanghai as questions are raised about the economic toll of the nation’s “zero-Covid” strategy.

Shanghai, China’s financial capital and largest city with 26 million people, had managed its smaller previous outbreaks with limited lockdowns of housing compounds and workplaces where the virus was spreading.