Shanghai 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.

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 neighbourhoods and large-scale testing while largely keeping the metropolis of 25 million people running, AFP reports.

A man and two children look over a barrier of an area under lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic in Shanghai on March 26. — Reuters
A man and two children look over a barrier of an area under lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic in Shanghai on March 26. — Reuters

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