April 6, 2022: -The major Chinese financial center of Shanghai extended restrictions on transportation on Tuesday after a day of intensive city-wide testing and saw new Covid-19 cases surge to more than 13,000, with no end to the lockdown insight.

After initially taking a more piecemeal approach aimed at minimizing economic disruptions, Shanghai imposed broader restrictions in the previous week as authorities struggled to contain what has become the city’s biggest Covid-19 outbreak.

The lockdown now covers over 25 million people after restrictions in the city’s western districts were extended until the notice comes in what has become a testing ground for the government’s zero-tolerance “dynamic clearance” approach and its ability to contain the highly infectious Omicron variant.

“Currently, Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control are at the most difficult and critical stage,” said Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission, on a Tuesday.

Shanghai is reporting a record 13,086 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases on April 4. On its official WeChat channel, the city government said up from 8,581 the previous day after a city-wide surveillance testing program that experienced over 25 million people swabbed in 24 hours.

On Monday, the local government said it had collected 25.67 million samples in 2.4 million test tubes, and nearly 80% of the total had been tested by 8:00 on Tuesday morning. Any positive results are followed up at the individual level.

Symptomatic cases decreased on Monday to 268, from 425 a day earlier. The proportion of official symptomatic infections remains far lower than the rest of the world, which experts have attributed to the city’s proactive screening process.

Nearly 38,000 personnel have been deployed to Shanghai from other regions in what state media has described as the most extensive nationwide medical operation since the shutdown of Wuhan in early 2020 after the first known coronavirus outbreak.

On Monday, Authorities said that further restrictions would be placed on the city transportation networks from Tuesday, with more subway lines suspended.