China’s biggest city Shanghai locks down as a part of its ‘zero-covid strategy’ to control the rising cases in the city

The authorities are initiating a two-stage lockdown aiming to split the city along the Huangpu river to allow for COVID testing.

The city of 26 million will be restricted from leaving homes with public transport suspended. Non-essential businesses will also remain closed while the stock exchange remains open.

On its only second day of testing on March 29 2021, Shanghai recorded 4381 asymptomatic cases and 96 symptomatic COVID cases.

The snap lockdown which is a reminder of what China saw at the start of pandemic, is already causing a major disruption in the lives of the residents.

The lockdown announcement came unexpectedly just a day after the Shanghai authorities claimed they will not put Shanghai in lockdown, marking a complete turnover of their claim.

Rijul Baath contributed to this report