SHANGHAI — Chinese authorities extended the lockdown of Shanghai to cover all of the financial center’s 26 million people on Tuesday, after city-wide testing saw new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases surge to more than 13,000 amid growing public anger over quarantine rules.

The lockdown now covers the entire city after restrictions in the city’s western districts were extended until further notice, in what has become a major test for China’s zero-tolerance strategy to eliminate the novel coronavirus.

At least 38,000 personnel have been deployed to Shanghai from other regions in what state media has described as the biggest nationwide medical operation since the shutdown of Wuhan in early 2020 after the first known coronavirus outbreak.

The city’s quarantine policy has been criticized for separating children from parents and putting asymptomatic cases among those with symptoms. Some public health experts say it is no longer an effective strategy.

“I do not think this is a good idea as more than 24 months into the pandemic we know so much more,” said Jaya Dantas, professor of international health at Curtin University in Australia, adding that China’s “resource intensive” strategies to combat COVID-19 needed to be revised.

Members of the public shared videos across social media expressing concern about the lockdown.

Sun Chunlan, China’s vice-premier in charge of COVID prevention, urged grassroots Party organizations to “do everything possible” to help residents solve their problems, such as ensuring access to medicine, food and water.

Thousands of Shanghai residents have been locked up in rudimentary “central quarantine” facilities after testing positive, whether they are symptomatic or not.

Jane Polubotko, a Ukrainian marketing manager now held in the city’s biggest quarantine center, told Reuters it was unclear when they would be released.

“Nobody knows how many tests we need to get out,” she said.

In an interview with Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily on Saturday, Chen Erzhen, a doctor in charge of one Shanghai quarantine facility, said it was possible that China would revise guidelines and allow asymptomatic patients to stay home, especially if the number of cases continued to mount.

“The most important thing is the problem of personal compliance,” he said.

CASES SURGE
Shanghai imposed tough restrictions last week as authorities struggled to contain what has become the city’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak, after originally taking a more piecemeal approach.

“Currently, Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage,” said Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission, at a Tuesday briefing. “We must adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearance without hesitation, without wavering.”

Shanghai reported a record 13,086 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases on April 4, authorities said on their WeChat channel, up from 8,581 the previous day, after a city-wide testing program swabbed more than 25 million people in 24 hours.

The government said it had collected 25.7 million samples in 2.4 million test tubes on Monday, and almost 80% of the total had been tested by Tuesday morning. Any positive results are followed up at the individual level.

The proportion of asymptomatic cases is far higher in Shanghai than the rest of the world, which has been attributed to a screening process that catches infected people before they become ill. However, experts said it did not explain why symptomatic cases fell on Monday to 268, from 425 a day earlier.

Analysts outside China warn about the economic costs of the campaign to curb infections.

“What is most striking in Shanghai is the difficulty that the authorities are having in managing logistics, particularly conditions in centralized quarantine facilities,” said Michael Hirson, China analyst with the Eurasia Group consultancy.

“Given that Shanghai has a highly capable government, current problems pose a warning for local governments across China where capacity is not as high and major outbreaks could stretch resources further to the limits.” — Reuters

CITIES are driving the human-caused climate change that threatens the global environment, but also offer hope.

That is the overriding message of a chapter devoted to cities in a major U.N. report on climate change released on Monday, providing city planners around the world guideposts aimed at avoiding climate catastrophe.

“The fact that cities are responsible for more than two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions means that if cities do something, they can solve two-thirds of the problem. So that’s pretty exciting,” said Karen Seto, a professor at Yale University’s School of the Environment and one of two coordinating lead authors of the report’s chapter on cities.

Many cities around the globe have taken action already. Mexico City has banned plastic bags. Minneapolis, Minnesota, eliminated zoning for single-family homes to promote density. Paris has outlawed diesel cars.

“Every city can do something, and not every city’s going to do the exact same thing,” Ms. Seto said. “Not every city needs to look the same. Not every building needs to be a high rise.”

Cities, particularly the small and medium-sized cities of Asia and Africa that will see the most growth this century, offer the opportunity reduce reliance on automobiles, employ environmentally friendly building materials, and capture stormwater runoff, according to the report’s experts.

Cities can become havens of urban forests, street trees and green roofs, which will not only sequester and store carbon but also induce a cooling effect that reduces energy demand and energy use for water treatment, said the report, the latest from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Urban density also avoids rural and suburban sprawl, which is less energy efficient and destroys natural habitats.

“The 21^st century will be the urban century, defined by a massive increase in global urban populations,” the report said, noting that 55% of the world’s population lived in urban areas as of 2018, a figure expected to jump to 68% by 2050.

At the same time, however, “the global trend of urbanization also offers a critical opportunity in the near term, to advance climate resilient development.”

The report focuses on mitigation, noting that alleviating climate change in cities will have an outsized effect on surrounding areas and help improve the mental and physical health of urban dwellers.

As with the global thrust of the overall report, the authors call on governments and industry to act with extreme urgency and make significant new commitments toward financing.

Urban areas generated 67% to 72% of carbon dioxide and methane emissions in 2020, up from 62% in 2015. Without any mitigation efforts, the raw amount of urban emissions could double from 2020 to 2050, the report said.

But with aggressive and immediate mitigation policies, urban greenhouse gas emissions could approach net zero by 2050.

As home to generally more prosperous people, urban cities emit more greenhouse gases.

Of the additional 2.5 billion people expected to live in cities by midcentury, 90% of the increase will take place in Africa and Asia, requiring more advanced economies and multinational companies to finance green development.

Capital will be needed to promote carbon sequestration, avoid emissions and reduced energy use.

Ms. Seto said she was optimistic because consumers and investors in the “global north” are demanding sustainability, and because the cost of new technologies such as photovoltaics and batteries for electric vehicles is going down.

“The cost of the status quo is worse than doing nothing,” Ms. Seto said. — Reuters