Shanghai slipping back into lockdowns days after restrictions relaxed

China’s tech hub of 25 million people celebrated last week when officials lifted its city-wide lockdown, but certain neighborhoods are once against be quarantined after new cases, according to city health authorities.  

Four neighborhoods in Shanghai’s Jing’an and Pudong districts were designated “medium-risk areas” after seven new COVID-19 cases were detected there, meaning residents will be confined to their homes for 14 days, according to a news conference on Thursday.

Shanghai health officials also said their 26 close contacts and 106 secondary contacts had been placed in government quarantine.

The city’s “reversion to lockdown” is a reminder that China’s zero-COVID strategy of mass testing and harsh lockdowns will continue, says CNN.

Shanghai’s “reopening” has been met with jubilation by its residents, many of whom have been confined inside their residential complexes since March.

But under the renewed bustle of city life, strict protocol and regular testing continues. Shanghai residents must present a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours to use public transportation and enter public spaces, which has resulted in long lines outside testing sites in the blistering hot Chinese summer, reports CNN.

Shanghai is China’s most economically important city so the effects of it locking down has been reverberated through supply chains to every corner of the globe.

One analysis of the global supply chain found that “shipment delays between China and major US and European ports have quadrupled since late March, when China shut down the city of Shanghai, which has the world's busiest container port.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to stand by strict zero-COVID has reportedly created rifts in the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Last month, the state news agency stunned CCP members by publishing a full speech given by Premier Li Keqiang, the second most powerful man China, in a virtual meeting of 100,000 local government officials where he calls for immediate action to “stabilize” the situation in China amid backlash to harsh lockdowns.