The United States warned on Saturday (April 9) against "arbitrary" measures by China's COVID-19, saying it would allow some personnel to leave the Shanghai consulate due to an increase in city-locked infections.

Since March, China has kept cases under immediate locking, mass testing and travel restrictions, but since March, more than 100,000 cases have been reported in Shanghai in the strict COVID zero test. national policy.

It is estimated that 25 million residents of the city were closed in circles last week, with complaints about food shortages and viral videos of dissatisfied residents fighting officials.

The State Department has now allowed unnecessary staff to leave their consulate in Shanghai "due to the increase in COVID-19 cases and the impact of response restrictions," a US embassy spokesman said in a statement.

The statement warned citizens to travel to China, "for arbitrary enforcement of local laws and restrictions related to COVID-19," and added that the Beijing embassy was concerned about the Chinese government's measures. Shanghai reported more than 23,000 new infections on Saturday - mostly asymptomatic, representing more than 90 percent of the country's new domestic infections.

City officials are adding thousands of new beds to more than 100 makeshift hospitals, Shanghai Deputy Mayor Zong Ming told a news conference on Saturday.

According to Xinhua State News, the largest hospital with 50,000 beds was opened on Saturday at the Landmark National Exhibition and Convention Center.

Under China's zero COVID policy, the authorities have pledged to isolate anyone who tests positive in hospital wards that leave facilities full of patients, even if they do not appear. severe symptoms.

While locals have already begun to fight prison bans, many are complaining about social shortages on social media, expressing shame about the recent killing of a corgi pet in good health for fear of becoming infected. The unpopular policy of separating infected children from their virus-free parents eased this week after the outbreak of public outrage.

However, Beijing adheres to its zero-tolerance approach and is determined to end the explosion in Shanghai and send medics from across the country as reinforcements.

Shanghai officials said on Saturday that they planned to conduct a new round of PCR tests on the entire population of the city, after which they will begin to relax the rules in a few weeks - if they follow them. .