COVID outbreak ‘extremely grim’ as Shanghai extends lockdown

BEIJING (AP) — A city official says the COVID-19 outbreak in China’s largest metropolis of Shanghai remains “extremely grim” amid an ongoing lockdown confining 26 million people to their homes. China has sent more than 10,000 health workers from around the country to aid the city, including 2,000 from the military, and is mass testing residents, some of whom have been locked down for weeks. Most of eastern Shanghai, which was supposed to reopen last Friday, remains locked down along with the western half of the city. Concern is growing about the potential economic impact on China’s financial capital, also a major shipping and manufacturing center. Shanghai recorded another 13,354 cases on Monday, the vast majority of them asymptomatic.