* China's Shanghai has cut off the community transmission of COVID-19 in all its 16 districts.

 

* The epidemic has been effectively brought under control and prevention measures have achieved incremental success.

 

* Shanghai, a financial, manufacturing and commercial hub of the country, has promoted the resumption of work and production in an orderly manner.

 

* From June 1 to mid-late June, Shanghai plans to implement regular epidemic prevention and control measures.

 

By Xinhua writers Jiang Wei, Yao Yujie and Xu Xiaoqing

 

China's Shanghai has cut off the community transmission of COVID-19 in all its 16 districts, a municipal official said Tuesday, as the megacity accelerates its business resumption.

 

Shanghai, with a population of 25 million, reported 77 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 746 local asymptomatic cases on Monday, Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai municipal health commission, told a press conference.

 

All the new cases were in areas under quarantine or closed-off management, he said.

 

On Sunday and Monday, the number of new local COVID-19 infections remained below 1,000 each day, with fewer than 1 million people now living in "closed-off management areas," according to the press conference.

 

As of Monday, the city had 259 COVID-19 patients in severe condition and 64 in critical condition, all receiving treatment in designated hospitals.

 

"The epidemic has been effectively brought under control and prevention measures have achieved incremental success," said Zong Ming, vice mayor of Shanghai, on Monday.

 

DYNAMIC ZERO-COVID POLICY DELIVERS RESULTS

 

In early March, Shanghai witnessed a new wave of infections caused by Omicron variants. By mid-April, the number of daily infections had leaped from single digits to over 27,000. More than 600,000 infections have been reported so far.

 

To contain the fast spread, the business hub adhered to the dynamic zero-COVID approach, classifying the whole city into closed-off management areas, restrictive control areas, and prevention areas.

 

More than 30,000 medics nationwide were mobilized to aid Shanghai in its fight against COVID-19.

 

Meanwhile, the city has been working hard to overcome bottlenecks in logistics and help e-commerce platforms increase their transport capacity. Local community workers and volunteers provided daily necessities for the residents and group buying organizers also did their bit.

 

Timely and resolute measures have gradually yielded great results. The city has built the capacity to collect and test a maximum of 8.5 million tubes of nucleic acid samples every day.

 

As the case numbers wane, the number of patients in Shanghai's makeshift hospitals at the city and district levels has dropped to about 50,000, only 20 percent of the peak total.

 

Swift and full implementation of containment policies is needed to effectively contain infections caused by the Omicron variants, according to Chinese epidemiologist Liang Wannian.

 

ACCELERATING BUSINESS RESUMPTION IN STAGES

 

Shanghai, a financial, manufacturing and commercial hub of the country, has promoted the resumption of work and production in an orderly manner.

 

Shanghai has released three "white lists" involving a total of more than 3,000 enterprises to accelerate their resumption of work and production. Ninety-five percent of the 666 companies included in the first "white list" in Shanghai had resumed work by May 13.

 

On Sunday, a ship loaded with over 4,000 electric cars produced by Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory left for Belgium. This is the second export shipment of Tesla cars from Shanghai since the factory resumed production on April 19.

 

All four factories of U.S. manufacturing company 3M in Shanghai have also resumed production.

 

Shanghai has also been vigorously promoting the opening of business outlets and the return of personnel to their workplace to ensure the supply of daily necessities.

 

Commercial outlets such as shopping malls, supermarkets and pharmacies are among the first to gradually resume in-store operations with reduced capacity. Vegetable markets, restaurants and hair salons will also gradually resume on-site business.

 

From June 1 to mid-late June, Shanghai plans to implement regular epidemic prevention and control measures, local authorities said.