China said Monday that just three people have died from Covid-19 in Shanghai since a gruelling lockdown began last month, despite recording hundreds of thousands of cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant in the eastern megacity.
SHANGHAI, China –
But some have cast doubt on official figures in a nation with low vaccination rates among its vast elderly population. Shanghai health officials noted Sunday that less than two-thirds of residents over 60 had received two Covid jabs and less than 40 percent had received a booster. The eastern business hub has simmered under lockdowns since March, with many of its 25 million residents confined to their homes as daily caseloads have topped 25,000 — a modest figure by global standards but virtually unheard of in China.
China last reported new Covid-19 deaths on March 19 — two people in the northeastern rustbelt province of Jilin — the first such acknowledged deaths in more than a year.China’s ruling Communist Party has touted its hardline pandemic approach as proof that it places human life above material concerns — unlike many Western democracies, which it argues have sacrificed lives by failing to stop the virus.
“This is a sensitive and critical year for the regime,” said Lynette Ong, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. Internet users have also blasted the filmed killing of a pet corgi by a health worker and a now-softened policy of separating infected children from their virus-free parents.