The rumor that circulated in Shanghai that “carpet-style” mass nucleic acid testing and lockdown of the city’s communities in steps will be carried out citywide has been refuted by the local anti-rumor platform on Thursday.

A WeChat message went viral on Wednesday evening that all the districts around Shanghai will launch a new round closed-loop management with residents set to be tested once or twice during a 48-hour period.

According to the message, those compounds with positive cases for COVID-19 detected will be locked down for 16 days and those with close contacts of COVID-19 infections will be lockdown for 14 days.

Along with the message, a list of key communities set to be locked down was attached.

The Shanghai epidemic prevention and control work group refuted the rumor on Thursday morning saying all the so-called step-by-step lockdown in compounds, the “carpet screening” and the list of key communities are untrue.

According to the anti-rumor platform, all the information in the message are rumors that had once circulated online in March and April.

Some netizens also doubted the credibility of the message since there are Chinese characters used by mistake in the message with rough wording.

Nevertheless, some communities in Shanghai, including those in Jing’an, Xuhui and Huangpu districts, have indeed announced mass screening and temporary lockdown notifications which local authorities said were measures adopted in response to the epidemic development situations rather than a citywide unified arrangement.

Shanghai is gradually restoring its normal production and life order at present with risks of the rebound of epidemic still existing, as the resumption of operation and production is stepped up and personnel flow is increased, the anti-rumor platform said, noting that epidemic prevention and control measures will be dynamically adjusted based on the judgments on the epidemic development and trend.

Global Times