China’s Shenzhen to adopt tiered COVID measures on Monday

Medical workers in protective suits collect swabs at a nucleic acid testing site at the Software Park in Nanshan district, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China Sept. 2, 2022. (REUTERS/David Kirton)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI — China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen, which went into a weekend lockdown on Saturday for mass COVID-19 testing, said it will adopt tiered anti-virus restriction measures starting on Monday.

The city also announced a new round of COVID-19 testing, vowing to “marshal all available resources, mobilize all forces, and take all possible measures” to stamp out the pandemic, after Shenzhen reported 89 new locally transmitted COVID infections on Sept 3, compared with 87 a day earlier.

“Currently, the city’s COVID situation is severe and complex. The number of new infections remains relatively high and community transmission risk still exists,” Lin Hancheng, a Shenzhen public health official, told a news conference late on Sunday.

Based on the results of the weekend testing, Shenzhen will classify its areas into three categories, reflecting low, medium, and high risk of infection, Lin said.

In areas deemed low risk, the city will remove restrictions that confined much of its population to residential compounds over the weekend, though lockdowns will remain in place in ‘high’ and ‘medium’ risk neighborhoods.

In areas where infections were found, temporary restrictions would be prolonged for three days.

Major districts of Futian, Nanshan, and Longhua said that entertainment centers like cinemas and KTVs would remain closed, and restaurants would allow dining at half capacity.

The Nanyuan neighborhood of the Futian District will continue to be treated as a medium-risk area due to the relatively high number of positive cases detected, Lin said.

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