Shanghai Adds 51 Deaths And Over 19,000 Covid Cases

Shanghai on Monday reported that another 51 people infected with Covid-19 had died, up from 39 the previous day.

The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said all of those who died were chronically ill and more than 70 percent were aged above 80.

Most of them were unvaccinated, the commission added.

The city recorded 16,983 new local asymptomatic coronavirus cases, down from 19,657 a day earlier.

But the number of new symptomatic infections reached 2,472, up from 1,401 on Sunday.

The commission's deputy director, Zhao Dandan, said the authorities will conduct another round of Covid-19 testing in targeted areas on Tuesday as the financial hub pursues the dynamic zero strategy.

Commenting on the outbreak, the head of Shanghai's Covid-19 clinical expert team, Zhang Wenhong, said the number of new cases recorded in the city had gradually come down from its peak while the reproduction number of the disease had also dropped from 9.5 to 1.

"As many people have fallen sick, it's becoming challenging to treat those who are vulnerable," he said in an interview.

"Almost all of the patients who were infected with Covid and were critically ill had chronic diseases such as cancer, heart problems and diabetes. Their causes of death were mostly their chronic condition."

Meanwhile, the National Health Commission reported 2,666 local symptomatic infections and 17,528 asymptomatic cases nationwide, with Jilin and Jiangsu provinces among the places seeing new infections.