A health worker wearing personal protective equipment conducts a swab test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in a compound
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Electronic door alarms are going to be fitted to stop people infected with Covid leaving their homes in Shanghai as restrictions escalate.
This marks the third week of the strict lockdown in China’s biggest city as Covid cases continue to surge.
Forced evacuations took place this week where people were made to leave their homes to allow for buildings to be disinfected from Covid.
Some residents will be forced to move out temporarily, even if they have tested negative, in the city’s worst-hit areas as the disinfection measures are rolled out.
All infected people and close contacts will also be transferred to government-run centralised quarantine centres under Covid curbs.
“Nine major” actions have been announced which also include daily city-wide testing from Friday and minimising people movement.
The city government said on its official WeChat account on Friday that life could return to normal soon as long as people kept to the strict rules to stop the spread of Covid.
Infections were also showing a “positive trend”, the government said.
Officials have been trying to enforce the zero-Covid strategy which looks to eliminate the virus rather than living alongside it.
The government said: “Our goal is to achieve community zero-COVID as soon as possible.
“This is an important indication that we win this major, hard battle against the epidemic ... So that we can restore normal production and life order.”
It comes after Shanghai locked virtually all of its 25 million residents into their homes at the start of April.
Residents have faced income losses, family separations and difficulty meeting basic needs.
