A medical worker in a protective suit collects a swab sample from a resident for nucleic acid testing, outside a closed entrance of a building during lockdown, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Shanghai, China, May 12, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
Shanghai residents’ delight at the lifting of a two-month COVID-19 lockdown is giving way to anger as they spend hours in line for viral testing and must produce negative findings to enter public venues.
On Wednesday, the majority of China’s 25 million inhabitants were released from lockdown. However, residents must provide documentation of having taken a COVID test within the past 72 hours in order to enter facilities such as malls and offices, or even utilize subways and buses.
Authorities have constructed 15,000 testing locations and trained thousands of people to swab throats. Despite this, huge lines in the early summer heat became frequent on Wednesday and Thursday, with some individuals claiming to have waited for two hours.
