What’s new: Shanghai hit a new high in its local Covid-19 cases on Friday, as the municipality battles its worst-ever outbreak which authorities said is a result of the highly infectious and hard-to-identify omicron BA.2 subvariant.
On Friday, the Asian financial hub reported 38 confirmed local infections and 2,231 asymptomatic cases. More than half of the cases were found in those already in quarantine.
The surge in asymptomatic cases could be attributed to the time lag between taking the nucleic acid and getting the result, according to Wu Fan, the associate dean of Shanghai Medical College at Fudan University.
In a Saturday morning press conference, Wu explained that health care workers analyze test results in batches, which speeds up the process in determining what measures are to be taken. But it also means that more tests have to be done later to identify cases.
“This kind of time lag may delay the full testing results for two to three days,” Wu said.
Background: Shanghai reported a total of 1,609 local cases on Thursday, up from 983 the previous day. Since the start of March, the city’s local medical institutions have admitted more than 7,000 Covid patients, mostly asymptomatic. It has imposed residential and office lockdowns and suspended several dozens of hospitals’ outpatient and emergency services as part of efforts to contain the outbreak.
Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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