Shanghai's bespoke approach to tackling coronavirus outbreaks is coming under strain as new cases rise in the Chinese metropolis, with authorities reluctant to impose a comprehensive lockdown as other cities have done.

Shanghai's locally transmitted asymptomatic infections surged to a record 1,582 on March 24, up from 979 a day earlier, but just 29 new symptomatic cases were recorded, up from 4.

The city of 26 million has become a testing ground for China's ability to control flare-ups of the more contagious but less deadly Omicron variant while keeping the economy steady in an approach it describes as "slicing and gridding", which involves screening neighbourhoods one by one.

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