New Delhi

The local government in Shanghai has asked schools to hold online classes from Monday in their latest attempt to keep the COVID-19 cases in control. In the past few weeks, the infections have gone up significantly all around the country as the Communist Party of China relaxed restrictions in the face of protests. The education bureau of the city has also instructed the kindergartens and childcare centres in the city to stay closed for some time, local media reported.

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The tough restrictions imposed by the government as part of President Xi Jinping’s Zero Covid policy were met with protests from citizens around the country. The authorities tried to stop the protesters by using force but in the face of international backlash, they decided to allow some respite.

China has stopped reporting asymptomatic cases and many cities no longer need negative Covid certificates for people to visit public areas. However, the cases have also increased in the same time period with the country reporting 2,286 new symptomatic infections on Friday.

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The national health commission said that there were no more deaths in the past week but the rising number of cases have sparked major concerns among the authorities.

Meanwhile, the US-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has predicted that the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions can result in an “explosion of cases”. The report claimed that the total number of deaths can reach one million as the infections are expected to increase by April 2023.

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(With inputs from agencies)