China’s financial hub of Shanghai said on Friday it will close all primary, middle and high schools from March 12 and that students will need to shift to online classes until further notice as part of COVID-19 prevention measures.
The Shanghai government said on its official WeChat account that kindergartens and preschools will also suspend classes.
Mainland China reported over 1,000 new local COVID-19 infections on Friday, the highest daily count since Beijing contained its first national outbreak in early 2020, driven by a jump in asymptomatic infections amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
The size of the latest outbreak is much smaller than many others outside mainland China, but the increase in the number of cases could add pressure to China’s “dynamic-clearance” ambition to curb each transmission as quickly as possible.
