Covid outbreak ‘extremely grim’ as Shanghai extends lockdown

A medical worker collects sample swab sample from residents in a lockdown area in the Jingan district of western Shanghai, Monday, April 4, 2022. China has sent more than 10,000 health workers from across the country to Shanghai, including 2,000 military medical staff, as it struggles to stamp out a rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak in China’s largest city. (AP Photo/Chen Si)

The Covid-19 outbreak in China’s largest metropolis of Shanghai remains “extremely grim” amid an ongoing lockdown confining around 26 million people to their homes, a city official has said.

The director of Shanghai’s working group on epidemic control, Gu Honghui, was quoted by state media as saying the outbreak in the city was “still running at a high level”.