Shanghai reports first COVID deaths amid sweeping lockdowns

Shanghai officials reported the city’s first COVID-19 deaths since imposing strict city-wide lockdowns due to the recent spread of the omicron variant. 

Shanghai’s municipal government said on Sunday that three residents, aged  89 to 91, have died due to complications from the virus, Bloomberg reported. The three victims all had underlying health issues, officials noted. 

The death count is still remarkably low considering the city is reporting thousands of daily cases of the virus. The BBC reported that dozens of elderly COVID patients have died in recent weeks, but that the official count until Sunday said no one had died from the virus since 2020.

The three new deaths in Shanghai are also the first China has officially reported since two people in the Jilin province died due to complications from COVID-19 last month. 

Shanghai has become the epicenter of China’s worst virus outbreak since the beginning of the global pandemic. 

City officials reported 19,831 new asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on Sunday and  2,417 new symptomatic cases, Reuters reported. 

Chinese officials have adopted strict lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of the omicron variant, as Shanghai has conducted more than 200 million virus tests since March 10.  

Chinese President Xi Jinping said last week the country will stick to its zero-COVID-19 approach despite the backlash it has received from sweeping lockdowns in its industrial hub.