China: COVID-19 Vaccines – Announcements/Regulatory Actions/Deployment

[We did not identify official announcements about Shanghai confirming the reports below; See China CDC below for additional announcements]

China tightens controls as Shanghai reports record Covid cases
Japan urges local government to address business concerns as ongoing restrictions hit commerce
Reuters in Shanghai
Sat 23 Apr 2022 10.42 EDT
Shanghai reported a record number of symptomatic Covid-19 cases on Saturday and other areas across China tightened controls as the country kept up its “dynamic clearance” approach that aims to stamp out the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Zhengzhou airport economic zone, a central Chinese manufacturing area that includes Apple supplier Foxconn, announced a 14-day lockdown on Friday “to be adjusted according to the epidemic situation”…

…Shanghai itself, which is at the centre of China’s recent Covid surge starting in early March, reported a record 3,590 symptomatic cases for 15 April, as well as 19,923 asymptomatic cases. The asymptomatic case number was up slightly from 19,872 cases a day earlier.

The city’s case tally makes up the vast majority of cases nationwide even as most of its 25 million residents remain under lockdown…

At the Zhengzhou economic zone, only personnel with valid passes, health codes and proof of negative Covid tests would be able to leave during the two-week period, although “special vehicles” would be able to travel normally for work reasons, local authorities said in a post on an official WeChat instant messaging account.

Overall, China reported 24,791 new coronavirus cases on 15 April, of which 3,896 were symptomatic and 20,895 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.