Shanghai aims to defeat Covid-19 over next week as Beijing hunkers down

Shanghai eyes lockdown end with final push. Aims to limit COVID to quarantined zones. Beijingers stay home as virus spreads. Officials pledge support for economy, jobs

Locked-down Shanghai aims to ringfence its COVID outbreak over the next week, officials said on Friday, while residents in China's capital Beijing largely heeded the advice of authorities to work from home to stem the virus' spread.

Easing weeks of punishing restrictions in the commercial hub would bring relief to China's battered economy, although there is growing concern that Beijing may yet take a similar course of action if it fails to get a nascent outbreak under control.

Shanghai's deputy mayor, Wu Qing, said the city of 25 million aims to eliminate COVID outside of quarantined zones within the next week or