Shanghai Covid cases top 13,000 as millions are locked down

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, residents wait to take nucleic acid tests at a community in Pudong New Area of eastern China's Shanghai city on April 4, 2022. - AP

SHANGHAI (Bloomberg): Shanghai reported more than 13,000 daily Covid cases for the first time, as a sweeping lockdown of its 25 million residents and mass testing uncovered extensive spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant.

The Chinese financial hub registered 13,354 local cases for Monday (April 4), up from 9,006 a day earlier and from near zero at the start of March, according to a local government statement. Of the total, 13,086 were asymptomatic inctions. More than 12,600 cases were found among people in quarantine while the rest were uncovered during checks on high-risk groups.