The first deaths from the latest Covid outbreak have been reported in Shanghai

As the number of cases in eastern China increased and the country's commitment to a zero-Covid approach prompted more cities to impose pandemic restrictions despite fears of major economic disruption, Shanghai reported the first deaths linked to the city's ongoing Covid-19 outbreak—the worst of China's since the start of the pandemic.

Three unvaccinated persons aged 89 to 91 died of Covid on Sunday, according to a news conference held by Shanghai officials.

A total of 16 afflicted persons were still in serious condition, according to local officials.

The Covid deaths in Shanghai are the country's first in almost a month, following the country's first Covid deaths in January 2021, when two fatalities due to the disease were recorded in Jilin.

According to China's National Health Commission, Shanghai added 19,831 new asymptomatic cases and 2,417 new symptomatic cases to its total tally on Monday.

The city is now in the fourth week of its continuous Covid-19 lockdown, which was supposed to last ten days but has yet to conclude.

4,641. That is the total number of Covid-19 fatalities documented in China since the outbreak began. China has one of the lowest pandemic mortality rates of any country, with a rate of less than 0.5 per 100,000 people when adjusted for population size. In comparison, more than 300 fatalities per 100,000 have been documented in the United States.

Since the epidemic began in late March, Shanghai has recorded moreover 300,000 Covid-19 cases. While some restrictions were eased last week, the majority of the city remains under lockdown. Due to many difficulties such as food shortages and strict quarantine laws, the city's citizens have expressed their dissatisfaction with the three-week-long lockdown. The extremely contagious omicron subvariant known as BA.2, which appears to have blunted the impact of China's shutdown and mass testing measures, has exacerbated the epidemic in Shanghai.

Despite mounting doubts about the efficiency of its zero-Covid plan in the face of a highly transmissible virus, Beijing has decided to adhere to it. President Xi Jinping of China approved the strategy last week, saying that "prevention and control efforts must be eased." Xi's position was reinforced in a Monday editorial in the state-run People's Daily, which termed the plan "right and successful" and urged the Chinese people to follow it "unwaveringly and unrelentingly."