Shanghai reports first official Covid deaths in weeks-long lockdown

Three elderly people aged between 89 and 91 died from Covid on Sunday, after their condition deteriorated in hospital, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said in a This is only the second time mainland China has reported Covid deaths this year. Last month, the northeastern province of Jilin reported two deaths — the first in more than a year. Throughout 2021, mainland China reported only two Covid deaths, both in January.Chinese officials and state media have attributed the country’s low death toll to the supposed success of its zero-Covid strategy, often contrasting it with the hundreds of thousands of deaths reported in Western countries.But increasingly, the low official death toll is also raising questions among many Shanghai residents over whether it is justified to impose the kind of stringent measures that have upended the lives of millions of people.The reported deaths come as the metropolis of 25 million people continues to endure a grueling lockdown, which has ground the vibrant, bustling business hub to a virtual halt. Residents have been confined to their homes for three weeks and counting, with many complaining of food shortages, lack of medical access, poor conditions at makeshift quarantine camps and heavy-handed measures such as separating infected children from their parents.On China’s heavily censored social media, users have resorted to creative ways to express growing discontent toward the prolonged lockdown, including posting under seemingly irrelevant hashtags that deliver veiled criticism or sarcasm. But those hashtags are often censored too after they draw widespread attention.On Sunday, the latest censored hashtag on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, is the first line from China’s national anthem: “Stand up! Those people who refuse to be slaves!”Additional reporting by Simone McCarthy and CNN’s Beijing Bureau.