Authorities began closing down some western sections of Shanghai two days ahead of schedule, as new COVID-19 cases increased by a third in China's most populated city despite strong precautions to halt the virus's spread.

China's financial hub, home to 26 million people, is on the third day of a lockdown imposed by officials. The city has been divided roughly along the Huangpu River, with the historic center west of the river separated from Pudong's eastern financial and industrial district to allow for staggered mass tests.

While inhabitants in the east have been isolated since Monday, those in the west had been due to begin their four-day lockdown on Friday.

Completely shutting down a major city like Shanghai would result in a 4% drop in the national real gross domestic product. Economists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, and other institutions calculated in mid-March.

Shanghai reported 5,656 new asymptomatic COVID cases and 326 new symptomatic cases on March 29, up from 4,381 new asymptomatic cases and 96 new symptomatic cases the previous day. China reclassifies asymptomatic patients who acquire symptoms later.

On Tuesday, several residents in western districts received notification from their housing committees that they would be prohibited from leaving their compounds for the next seven days.

"We will resume normal life soon, but in the next period of time we ask everyone to adhere closely to pandemic control measures, do not gather, and reduce movements," one housing committee note obtained by Reuters stated.

Meanwhile, the city's southwestern district of Minhang, which has a population of more than 2.5 million, announced a suspension of public bus service until April 5.

During a news conference on Wednesday, Shanghai authorities announced that they had conducted 9.1 million nucleic acid tests since the lockdown began on Monday.

Additionally, they stated that a month-long program would disinfect locations such as office buildings, construction sites, wet markets, and schools.

'PANDEMIC PUDONG'

China's "dynamic clearance" strategy aims to eliminate all cases, and all individuals who test positive are quarantined or hospitalized centrally. Close acquaintances and neighbors must remain quarantined at their residences.

Many residents across the city have gone to social media to express their frustrations with the lockdown, posting videos and photographs of crowded quarantine centers and requests for assistance with medical treatment and food purchases. continue reading

Business life has been severely impacted as well.

The city's car production has been disrupted. Chinese enterprises have postponed a wave of planned domestic initial public offers, as the current case spike has impeded due diligence and information gathering - hurting an estimated $9 billion in fundraising. continue reading

Across mainland China, daily rates of new local infections have been significantly higher in the last two weeks than in the first two months of this year, marking the most significant wave since the 2020 Wuhan outbreak.

The eastern city of Xuzhou, which has reported fewer than 20 local infections in the last week, has enforced a three-day lockdown in the city's most populous regions beginning Wednesday.

According to the Xuzhou administration, each household in those areas should send one person out every other day to shop for basics. At the same time, non-essential businesses should either close their doors, have staff work from home, or function in a closed-loop fashion.

According to the National Health Commission (NHC), China has constructed or was constructing 82 temporary hospitals across 46 cities on Wednesday. According to health officials, this is more than double the 33 temporary hospitals the country had or was preparing for eight days ago.