Shanghai has been instructed to test 25 million inhabitants for Covid, and China is drafting in the military.

China's officials have made it plain that Shanghai is too big to fail when it comes to the country's famous zero-Covid health strategy.

The city, which is dealing with an unprecedented number of daily Covid cases, has become the most visible — and potentially costly — example of China's stringent extermination plan.

The ruling Communist Party stated on Sunday that hundreds of military officers will be deployed to the closed-down financial hub to assist in the required screening of the city's 25 million residents.

The plan, which would require every citizen to take a nucleic acid test beginning Monday morning, comes after Shanghai reported a city-wide record of over 9,000 cases on Sunday.

The fast-spreading outbreak has put Shanghai on the front lines of China's uncompromising war with the virus, as the government ramps up testing, mandatory lockdowns, and controversial isolation procedures that have seen young children taken from their parents if they test positive.

Enforcing these restrictions while still trying to meet the demands of a confined populace has forced officials to acquire a warlike mindset. According to official media, more than 30,000 medics have been rushed to the city in recent days. According to the official PLA Daily, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) also dispatched about 2,000 military medical personnel to Shanghai on Sunday.

Shanghai officials have been under increasing political pressure to both stops the epidemic and answer citizens' concerns about the high expenses and inconveniences of the strict measures.

The city has been roiled by social and economic dysfunction for weeks, with financial professionals forced to sleep in their offices, significant port delays putting strain on supply systems, and locked-down inhabitants desperate for medical care and other necessities.

If residents anticipated the measures would be eased soon, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan's visit to the city over the weekend confirmed Beijing's position.

Sun, who has led Covid-19 control efforts during the epidemic, emphasized on Sunday that Shanghai must follow China's zero-Covid policy without "hesitation or wavering," citing Chinese President Xi Jinping's order to eradicate the virus and win the "hard-fought war" against the pandemic.

China's health authorities have frequently warned that if the virus spreads significantly in the 1.4 billion-strong population, health facilities could be overwhelmed, especially because vaccination rates among the elderly are low, and have stated that controlling Covid is an "overriding political goal."

Separated from their parents, young children
Last week, city officials admitted to failings in their response, with Shanghai municipal people's government secretary-general Ma Chunlei apologizing on Thursday for not being "sufficiently prepared" for the epidemic.

Residents have continued to use social media in recent days to discuss difficulties obtaining things, including getting up early in the morning to place orders for limited supplies.
"We don't have anything right now — oil, rice, and a variety of other items. It's too difficult. I set an alarm for 6 a.m., but I'm still unable to obtain rice "One user commented on a social media post on the situation in their Shanghai neighborhood, where authorities later announced supplies will be delivered.

Over the weekend, the new outcry over isolation measures erupted after photographs of a packed, understaffed Shanghai hospital ward for children with Covid-19 who had been removed from their families owing to isolation restrictions surfaced.

The photos were not of the Covid-19 pediatric isolation ward, as the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center later clarified in a statement, but were taken as the hospital was transferring the regular pediatric ward to the outpatient and emergency building, where "more pediatric medical personnel have been deployed."
However, the policy itself has created substantial concern among parents, as it compels all patients who test positive to be separated in facilities, including young children and babies.

According to CNN, a woman named Zhu said her 2-year-old daughter tested positive on March 26 and was separated from her and taken to a clinic on March 29, where she received little information on her daughter other than updates stating she was in good health.

"This condition requires no advanced medical expertise; all she requires is care and friendship," Zhu tweeted on the Weibo social media platform, which is similar to Twitter.
Zhu, who has also been verified to have Covid-19, was only allowed to enter Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and be with her daughter on Monday after numerous attempts, according to Zhu.

Shanghai officials responded to the concerns in a press conference on Monday, saying that if the parents of infected children are also positive, they can stay together and receive medical observation and treatment, but children under the age of seven must still be taken to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center for pediatric treatment.

Is there a conclusion insight?
The lingering question now is when Shanghai will be allowed to lift limitations while the citywide mass testing continues and the majority of the city remains under lockdown.

The restrictions have had an impact on the city's economy, as backlogs and travel delays have grown. The city is China's financial center and home to the world's busiest container port, so the government will be concerned about the long-term consequences of a prolonged shutdown.

However, the city's case count has yet to decline, and a similar situation is unfolding in northern Jilin province, which launched more stringent disease control measures in March.

The outbreaks, the country's largest in over two years, are the first time China's control procedures have been put to the test against the highly transmissible Omicron subvariant BA.2.

Some locals are recalling the circumstances in Wuhan two years ago when China was dealing with its first epidemic of Covid-19. For months, the city was under different sorts of lockdown, and medical personnel from all around the country gathered to assist.

"It's been (two years since Wuhan) and everything has changed, but it appears nothing has changed," one social media user remarked in a popular Weibo comment, referring to the arrival of Wuhan-based medics in Shanghai. "When I witness Wuhan's support, I cry."