China reports 401 new local Covid-19 cases: 322 in Shanghai, 32 in Beijing

Witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China on Sunday reported 401 confirmed local COVID-19 cases, of which 322 were in Shanghai, the National Health Commission said on Monday.

Apart from Shanghai, six other provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland saw new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including 33 in Beijing and 28 in Guangdong, Xinhua reported.

According to Xinhua, China's financial hub Shanghai reported 3,625 locally transmitted asymptomatic infections. On Sunday, 11 deaths were reported in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread in more and more cities in China, questions are mounting over the country's much-publicized "zero-covid" strategy that the government credited for bringing the country out of the pandemic.

The ongoing severe lockdown restrictions in China's Shanghai to contain the spread of COVID-19 has drastically affected the day-to-day lives of the people due to food shortage.

Further, in a major escalation of COVID-19 restrictions amid a surge in Omicron variant cases, Beijing has banned all restaurant dining, shut down universal studios and ordered residents to provide proof of a negative Covid test to enter public venues.

According to reports, Shanghai residents have also been falling sick after consuming some of the food supplies because of the distribution of stale food by the authorities amid the city's COVID-19 lockdown.

The city's poor handling of the country's worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years has raised public distrust in the authorities and anger at the government.