Shanghai locks down half of city to fight Covid-19 outbreak: Report

The outbreak is testing country's virus strategy, which is proving tougher to prosecute amid more contagious variants and is dragging on the world's 2nd-largest economy as rest of the globe normalises

Shanghai will lock down the city in two phases to conduct a mass testing blitz for Covid-19, as authorities scramble to staunch a spiralling outbreak that’s challenging China’s zero-tolerance approach to the virus like never before.  

At 5am on Monday, the city of 25 million people locked down areas east of the Huangpu River, which includes its financial district and industrial parks, for four days. The lockdown then shifts to the other half of the city, in the west, for another four days, according to a statement Sunday from the local government.

Residents will be barred from leaving their homes, while public