A day after Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to reinstate its COVID-19 indoor mask mandate, officials in Shanghai, China eased the lockdown that had been in place for the last two weeks. The video above includes clips of some Shanghai out and about Tuesday. The lockdown easing allows about 6.6 million residents to go outdoors, but according to online news outlet The Paper citing city officials, some must stay in their own neighborhoods.
“China’s epidemic prevention policy is scientific and effective, and we have every confidence that Shanghai and other places will bring this round of epidemic under control,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Tuesday.
Other Chinese officials warned Shanghai doesn’t have the virus under control.
“In the city of Shanghai, for eight consecutive days, there have been over 10,000 new infected cases reported. The epidemic is in a period of rapid growth,” said Lei Zhenglong, the deputy director of disease control at China’s National Health Commission. “Community transmission has not been effectively contained and has spilled over to multiple provinces and cities. We predict that in the next few days, the number of new infected cases will continue to be at high level.”
The easing of the Shanghai lockdown came as a spike in COVID-19 cases in Philadelphia forced the city to bring back its mask mandate. The video above also includes clips from Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole’s announcement Monday. Health officials believe the spike is being driven by the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron. The subvariant has spread rapidly throughout Europe and Asia, and has become dominant in the United States in recent weeks.
“We don’t know if the BA.2 variant in Philadelphia will have the kind of impact on hospitalizations and deaths that we saw with the original on the omicron variant this winter,” Bettigole said. “I suspect that this wave will be smaller than the one we saw in January. But if we wait to find out to put our masks back on, we’ll have lost our chance to stop the wave.”
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Philadelphia have risen more than 50% in 10 days. Officials will begin enforcing the mask mandate next Monday.
