Shanghai to build 3,250-bed Covid-19 facility near city centre

A photo from April 7, 2022, shows a makeshift hospital for Covid-19 patients in Shanghai. - AFP

SHANGHAI (Bloomberg): Shanghai will build an isolation facility that can house thousands of people near the centre of the city, adding to signs China is unlikely to shift away from Covid Zero any time soon despite the policy’s heavy cost.

The facility will be constructed on an area covering about 14ha on Fuxing island, which lies to the east of Shanghai’s business district, and will have 3,250 beds when it is completed. The 1.38 billion yuan (US$191 million) project was awarded to state-owned China Communications Construction Co, according to a bidding document published on a government tendering platform.