China records 319 more local Covid infections amid fresh outbreaks

215 of those were in Shanghai

Witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, China on Saturday reported 319 confirmed local COVID-19 cases, of which 215 were in Shanghai, the National Health Commission said on Sunday.

Apart from Shanghai, 11 other provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland saw new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, including 44 in Beijing and 25 in Henan, Xinhua reported.

Shanghai also reported 3,760 locally transmitted asymptomatic infections Saturday, out of a total of 4,065 such cases newly identified on the mainland.

On Saturday, eight deaths were reported in Shanghai, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to spread in more and more cities in China, questions are mounting over the country's much-publicized "zero-covid" strategy that the government credited for bringing the country out of the pandemic.

The ongoing severe lockdown restrictions in China's Shanghai to contain the spread of COVID-19 has drastically affected the day-to-day lives of the people due to food shortage.

Further, in a major escalation of COVID-19 restrictions amid a surge in Omicron variant cases, Beijing has banned all restaurant dining, shut down universal studios and ordered residents to provide proof of a negative Covid test to enter public venues.

According to reports, Shanghai residents have also been falling sick after consuming some of the food supplies because of the distribution of stale food by the authorities amid the city's COVID-19 lockdown.

The city's poor handling of the country's worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years has raised public distrust in the authorities and anger at the government.