Coronavirus Update: Entire Shanghai under lockdown as city reports record cases

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

Despite China’s dynamic zero-covid policy, the country is struggling to contain the recent coronavirus flare-ups. China’s financial hub of Shanghai city is entirely under lockdown after the authorities last Monday imposed a two-stage lockdown.

Shanghai reported 8,581 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and 425 symptomatic cases on April 3. That compared with 7,788 new asymptomatic cases and 438 new cases with symptoms reported a day earlier.

China's armed forces PLA has sent a health and logistics team consisting of over 2,000 people to Shanghai on Sunday evening to support covid prevention and control work.

Adding to China’s misery, the state media reported a case infected with a new subtype of the omicron variant after the country recorded 13,000 new infections.

China’s highly influential media outlet, Global Times reported, citing sequencing data from local health authorities, “the new iteration of the virus, isolated from a mild Covid-19 patient in a city less than 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Shanghai, evolves from the BA.1.1 branch of the omicron variant.”

Market implications

Despite Chinese traders out on a national holiday, the covid situation in the country is failing to keep the markets in Asia calm.

The S&P 500 futures are down 0.09% on the day while crude oil prices are also on the backfoot on concerns over China’s covid lockdowns-driven economic impact.

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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