Shanghai has steady decline in cases

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

Shanghai announced on Sunday that it achieved phased results of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control thanks to the joint efforts from all over the country and the city's residents in the past month.

The epidemic situation in the municipality is stable and improving, and the efforts to achieve dynamic zero-COVID have paid off, said Gu Honghui, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai municipal government.

"The overall trend of locally transmitted infections has been declining with some fluctuations since the number reached its peak of 27,605 on April 13," said Gu, who is also director of the office of the municipal epidemic prevention and control leading group.

Since Wednesday, the number of new infections daily has been below 10,000 for four consecutive days. The effective transmission index of this wave of epidemic has dropped from 2.27 to 0.67 now, and has remained below 1 for 15 days, he said.

Also, the rate of individuals who have tested positive through nucleic acid and antigen screening has gradually decreased.

"The risk of community transmission of the virus within the city has been effectively curbed according to experts' comprehensive judgments," said Gu.

Shanghai registered 788 local COVID-19 confirmed cases and 7,084 asymptomatic infections on Saturday. It was the second day that all the infections were of those who were already under quarantine.

Gu stressed that the current number of daily new infections is still at a high level, and there still lies the threat of the virus' spread in some old neighborhoods, large enterprises and construction sites that are under lockdown. Also, the task of treating severely ill and critical cases is still heavy.

"We must all be aware that the epidemic control results are yet to be secured, and a little relaxation may lead to a rebound or even failure," Gu said.