China faces a tough challenge to meet its annual growth target this year. By having zero tolerance for new COVID-19 cases, the country risks being in a constant loop of imposing and easing restrictions.
| Shanghai will briefly lock down almost everyone in the city this weekend for mass testing as COVID-19 cases continue to emerge, causing more disruption and triggering a renewed run on groceries days after exiting a gruelling two-month shutdown.
Five additional infections were found among people in quarantine on Thursday, for a total of 11 cases in the financial hub, health officials said. Nationwide, China added 73 infections.The return to lockdowns in Shanghai underscores the difficulties of China’s attempts to eliminate the virus while the rest of the world accepts it as endemic. The disruption wrought by pandemic curbs has hit
The benchmark CSI 300 Index was up 1.2 per cent as of 2:20pm local time, paring earlier losses. For the week, it is up about 3.3 per cent. While the latest curbs may lift in as little as a few hours if no new infections are found, two more weeks of isolation may be imposed for areas where new chains of transmission are uncovered.
The set-ups create a bubble in which workers only go to and from the factory, sometimes living on site, and are tested regularly to detect COVID-19 incursions.