Shanghai to Lock Down and Test 2.7 Million as Covid Fears Linger

Confronted with its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, China put Shanghai under heavy restrictions in early April Hector RETAMAL AFP/File
Confronted with its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, China put Shanghai under heavy restrictions in early April Hector RETAMAL AFP/File
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Shanghai to Lock Down and Test 2.7 Million as Covid Fears Linger

Confronted with its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, China put Shanghai under heavy restrictions in early April Hector RETAMAL AFP/File
Confronted with its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, China put Shanghai under heavy restrictions in early April Hector RETAMAL AFP/File

Shanghai will lock down a district of 2.7 million people on Saturday to conduct mass coronavirus testing, city authorities said, as the Chinese metropolis struggles to fully emerge from punishing curbs.

The city eased many restrictions last week, after confining most of its 25 million residents to their homes since March as China battled its worst Covid outbreak in two years, AFP said.

But the lockdown was never fully lifted, with hundreds of thousands in China's biggest city still restricted to their homes and multiple residential compounds put under fresh stay-home orders.

The southwestern district of Minhang, home to 2.7 million people, will be placed under "closed management" on Saturday morning and all residents will be tested, district authorities said in a social media post on Thursday.

"The closure will be lifted after samples have been collected," they added, without giving a specific time or date.

The statement also did not say what measures would be imposed if any district residents test positive.

Under China's stringent zero-Covid approach, all positive cases are isolated and close contacts -- often including the entire building or community where they live -- are made to quarantine.

Shanghai reported nine new local infections on Thursday -- none in Minhang.

The district's announcement sparked fear among some social media users that the lockdown could be prolonged beyond Saturday if any cases are found.

"You need to clarify if (the lockdown) will really be lifted after samples are collected," one user wrote on Weibo.

"If there are abnormal results after the tests, what will you do? Continue the lockdown?" asked another.

The lockdown in Shanghai -- a major global shipping hub -- had threatened to pile further pressure on already-strained international supply chains.

But the city has slowly come back to life in recent days.

Commuters are back on subways and buses as people return to working in their offices, while residents have gathered in parks and along the city's historic waterfront.

But others are chafing under continued restrictions, with residents in one compound in the downtown Xuhui district protesting against the rules this week.

China's capital Beijing, meanwhile, is transitioning more smoothly towards normality after shutting restaurants, gyms and subway stations last month to stamp out a smaller outbreak.



NATO Needs More Long-range Missiles to Deter Russia, US General Says

An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo
An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo
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NATO Needs More Long-range Missiles to Deter Russia, US General Says

An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo
An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo

NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a US Army general told Reuters.

Russia's effective use of long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine has convinced Western military officials of their importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and missile launchers far behind enemy lines.

"The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine," Major General John Rafferty said in an interview at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany.

"And we know that they're going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important."

The war in Ukraine has underscored Europe's heavy dependence on the United States to provide long-range missiles, with Kyiv seeking to strengthen its air defences.

Rafferty recently completed an assignment as commander of the US Army's 56th Artillery Command in the German town of Mainz-Kastel, which is preparing for temporary deployments of long-range US missiles on European soil from 2026.

At a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Monday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is expected to try to clarify whether such deployments, agreed between Berlin and Washington when Joe Biden was president, will go ahead now that Donald Trump is back in the White House.

The agreement foresaw the deployment of systems including Tomahawk missiles with a range of 1,800 km and the developmental hypersonic weapon Dark Eagle with a range of around 3,000 km.

Russia has criticised the planned deployment of longer-range US missiles in Germany as a serious threat to its national security. It has dismissed NATO concerns that it could attack an alliance member and cited concerns about NATO expansion as one of its reasons for invading Ukraine in 2022.

EUROPEAN PLANS

Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at Oslo University who specialises in missiles, estimated that the US provides some 90% of NATO's long-range missile capabilities.

"Long-range strike capabilities are crucial in modern warfare," he said. "You really, really don't want to be caught in a position like Ukraine (without such weapons) in the first year (of the war). That puts you at an immediate disadvantage."

Aware of this vulnerability, European countries in NATO have agreed to increase defence spending under pressure from Trump.

Some European countries have their own long-range missiles but their number and range are limited. US missiles can strike targets at a distance of several thousand km.

Europe's air-launched cruise missiles, such as the British Storm Shadow, the French Scalp and the German Taurus, have a range of several hundred km. France's sea-launched Missile de Croisiere Naval (MdCN) can travel more than 1,000 km.

They are all built by European arms maker MBDA which has branches in Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain and Sweden are now participating in a programme to acquire long-range, ground-launched conventional missiles known as the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA).

As part of the program, Britain and Germany announced in mid-May that they would start work on the development of a missile with a range of over 2,000 km.