Deaths have been reported since Shanghai was shut down

The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission announced three new local deaths from COVID-19. Shanghai officials had already announced the deaths on Monday. It was the first new death reported in China’s financial capital since a massive outbreak led to a city-wide lockdown last month.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Shanghai has reported its first death from COVID-19 since the city imposed self-imposed controls. The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission on Tuesday announced three new local deaths from COVID-19. It was the first new death reported in China’s financial capital since a massive outbreak led to a city-wide lockdown last month. As of yesterday, Shanghai had reported seven new deaths on Monday.

The three deaths were identified as an 89-year-old woman, a 91-year-old woman and a 91-year-old man, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said in a report posted on official social media accounts on Monday. The three patients had been admitted to local hospitals, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said.

The Shanghai Municipal Health Commission reported about 22,000 new locally confirmed and asymptomatic cases Sunday, down from nearly 25,000 a day earlier. The city is struggling to contain the current outbreak, with the daily number of new local infections staying above 20,000 for 11 consecutive days. (As of press time, Shanghai had reported more than 20,000 new local coronavirus cases on Monday.)
More than 23,000 new coronavirus cases were reported nationwide on Sunday, according to the National Health Commission. (As of press time, there were more than 21,000 new domestic coronavirus cases nationwide on Monday.)

The three deaths were revealed on Monday, with the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission saying they had multiple serious underlying diseases, including diabetes, coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. None of the three had been vaccinated against COVID-19, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said. The three were hospitalized in critical condition and died after all-out rescue efforts, the report said.

In Shanghai, where strict lockdown measures have yet to be lifted amid China’s worst outbreak, residents have taken to social media to express frustration over food shortages and some have swapped supplies with neighbors to overcome their difficulties, according to the report. Anxiety and hunger are prompting many to question Beijing’s policy response to the outbreak.
The announcement of the deaths comes more than two weeks after staff and relatives said patients in some elderly care facilities in Shanghai had died of unknown causes in the absence of an announcement of the coronavirus outbreak. Chinese media reports of previous deaths have been censored. The Shanghai government hasn’t responded to repeated requests for comment on the deaths.

The Wall Street Journal cited a person familiar with the matter as saying that several patients died in another unreported COVID-19 outbreak recently at the Ai-Ai-De Liantai Nursing Home in Baoshan district, a suburb of Shanghai. A person who answered the phone at the United Thai Nursing home confirmed that the facility had been fighting the outbreak since April 4, but denied that there had been any coronavirus deaths. She says it is normal for patients at the facility to die because many are very old and have serious illnesses of their own.

Reports of elderly deaths can be sensitive in Shanghai, which has four million residents over 65, the report said. Vaccination rates among China’s elderly population are relatively low, raising concerns about the potential high fatality rate from a widespread outbreak.