[Shanghai is currently at the epicenter of China's Omicron-fueled virus surge (Photo by=AFP/Hector RETAMAL)]

SHANGHAI: Shanghai on Saturday (Mar 26) recorded a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, but a member of the city's pandemic task force said officials were determined to avoid a full lockdown over the damage it would do to the economy, AFP reported.
 
Millions of Chinese in affected areas have been subjected to city-wide lockdowns by an Omicron-led outbreak that has sent daily case counts creeping ever-higher, though they remain insignificant compared to other countries. Shanghai, however, has aimed to ease disruption with a more targeted approach marked by rolling 48-hour lockdowns of individual neighborhoods and large-scale testing while largely keeping the metropolis of 25 million people running. At a daily Shanghai press conference Saturday, officials alluded to the importance of avoiding a full lockdown of the huge port city. "If Shanghai, this city of ours, came to a complete halt, there would be many international cargo ships floating in the East China Sea," said Wu Fan, a medical expert with the city's pandemic task force.

 
Shanghai and Jilin have been the areas hardest hit by the outbreak, which took off in early March. Shanghai on Saturday reported another steep rise in new local transmissions to 2,269, around 40 percent of the national total.