Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan called for the prompt treatment of patients. “Daily new cases must be handled on the same day and every patient should be given a timely treatment,” said Sun Chunlan.A total of 21,058 new cases in Shanghai were recorded in the last 24 hours, 10 per cent less than a day earlier, according to data released on Sunday. Symptomatic cases plunged by 49 per cent to 1,401. Cumulative infections since the outbreak began on March 1 topped 487,000.Meanwhile, a wave of new cases in Beijing prompted local authorities to step up measures to cut chains of transmission and community spread.Beijing added 13 new cases as of 4pm on Sunday, local time, raising the total number of infections in the nation’s capital to 41 in the latest outbreak. Local health officials said the virus had spread undetected in the city for about a week.A total of 21,058 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to data released on SundayIt comes as a viral video showing the impact of the prolonged coronavirus lockdown on Shanghai’s residents has been taken down by China’s internet censors Saturday, triggering an online backlash.About 25 million residents in Shanghai have been shut in their homes since early April, as officials rush to curb its worst ever outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic.The city has struggled to provide fresh vegetables and other essentials to those in lockdown, while patients have reported trouble accessing regular medical care as thousands of health staff were deployed to covid testing and treatment.The issues were chronicled in a six-minute video titled “Voice of April”, which was widely shared on Weibo and WeChat social media platforms in China.Shot against a simple aerial black-and-white view of the city, the video opens with audio clips from media briefings in March where officials say Shanghai will not have a citywide lockdown.The decision was quickly reversed by April as the highly transmissible Omicron variant led to a spike in infections.As the camera pans across the empty streets of Shanghai, audio clips are played in chronological order showing the dire situation of residents shunted into their homes without preparation.“We have gone to the hospital twice, but no one is there to treat us,” a man whose father is ill is heard saying.In another, a woman complains about not being allowed back home when she returned from hospital after chemotherapy.Internet censors scrubbed the video from Weibo and Wechat, but netizens kept uploading it into different cloud services.The swift censorship of the video – which was posted by an anonymous account – led to an online backlash.“The video was just presenting raw facts. There is nothing provocative!” said one commentator on Weibo.“Its content is nothing new… But the fact of seeing that even that is censored, it bothers me,” wrote another.Public criticism against the government is extremely rare, but the prolonged restrictions are testing the patience of the Chinese – with protest footage circulating on social media faster than censors can delete it.FIRST VIRUS DEATH IN COOK ISLANDSThe tiny South Pacific nation of the Cook Islands reported its first coronavirus-related death Sunday, more than two years after the pandemic erupted.A 63-year-old woman, who had underlying health conditions, died on her way to hospital on the island of Aitutaki late Saturday.“It is with great sadness that I announce that we have just recorded our first in-country death attributed to Covid-19,” Prime Minister Mark Brown said in a statement Sunday.“She had had all three anti-Covid vaccinations, but also had several serious underlying health conditions.” The island nation had been remarkably free from Covid-19 until an outbreak of the Omicron variant emerged after it reopened its border to travellers from New Zealand early this year.“It is tragic, but not unexpected that we might lose someone to Covid,” Brown said.The Cook Islands Health Ministry said it has so far recorded 4,727 cases of Covid-19 of which 735 were active as of Sunday morning.
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