Meanwhile, South Korea's total coronavirus infections topped 10 million, nearly 20 percent of its population, authorities said on Wednesday, as surging severe cases and deaths increasingly put a strain on crematories and funeral homes nationwide.

The latest outbreak in China's wealthy commercial hub remains tiny by global standards.

But its testing campaign, with many people locked in residential compounds for days, follows Beijing's national "dynamic clearance" policy to stamp out flare-ups as quickly as possible.

Daily new local COVID-19 infections in Shanghai neared 1,000 on Tuesday, but authorities vowed to stick with a "slicing and gridding" approach to screen neighborhoods one by one, rather than shut down entirely.

The lockdown rumors triggered panic buying late on Tuesday night, with slots on Alibaba's Freshhippo delivery app running out a minute after midnight.

"Please do not believe and spread rumors," the city administration said on its Weibo microblog site.

City health official Wu Jinglei said several streets and residential compounds had been unsealed after testing, but some areas face another round on Wednesday and Thursday, as the focus of its efforts is narrowed.

The city is using two stadiums as quarantine facilities for mild cases and asymptomatic carriers, Wu added at Wednesday's news briefing.

A handful of subway stations also suspended operations on Wednesday, the firm managing the transit system said, citing COVID-19 controls.

The municipality reported 977 domestically transmitted asymptomatic infections for Tuesday, data from the National Health Commission (NHC) showed, up from 865 a day earlier.

It also reported four local cases with confirmed symptoms, which China counts separately, down from 31 a day earlier.

 

'Infinite loop'

Throughout the city, while some compounds were unsealed, others were shut for several more days to try to eliminate transmission chains. Some residents said they would be sealed off for two weeks after a neighbor tested positive.

One resident posting on Weibo under the username "Zhang Fan's Viewpoint" said authorities might as well lock the city down and put an end to the uncertainty caused by 48-hour lockdowns for testing that are often extended.

"This infinite loop of 48 hours plus 48 hours plus 48 hours is more likely to cause ordinary people to lose control of their emotions, and it would be better to directly notify six days, eight days or even 14 days," the resident said.

"In these circumstances, a one-off payment is better than payment by instalment."

Mainland China reported 2,591 locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms on Tuesday, versus 2,281 a day earlier, the NHC data showed. The number of new local asymptomatic cases stood at 2,346 compared with 2,313 a day earlier.

The top steelmaking city of Tangshan said late on Tuesday residents who were not essential workers must stay home unless in an emergency or they need to be tested. The city government did not specify when the citywide lockdown would be lifted.

The northeastern city of Shenyang also announced that its 9 million residents would have to go through another three rounds of testing from Thursday through to March 30, after the three rounds already completed.

By March 22, mainland China had reported 137,231 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local ones and those arriving from outside the mainland. There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll at 4,638.

The coronavirus was first detected in China's central city of Wuhan in late 2019.

 

Higher demand

South Korea has been battling a record COVID-19 wave driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant even as it largely scrapped its once aggressive tracing and quarantine efforts and eased social distancing curbs.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 490,881 cases for Tuesday, the second highest daily tally after it peaked at 621,205 on March 16. The total caseload rose to 10.4 million, with 13,432 deaths, up 291 a day before.

The country's infection and death rates are still far below those recorded elsewhere, as almost 87 percent of its 52 million residents are fully vaccinated and 63 percent have received booster shots.

But the death toll nearly doubled in just about six weeks, with daily fatalities peaking at 429 on Friday, fueling demand for funeral arrangements.

The government on Monday instructed the 60 crematories nationwide to operate for longer hours to burn up to seven bodies from five, and the 1,136 funeral parlors capable of storing some 8,700 bodies to expand their facilities.

"We've discussed ways to reinforce the crematories to reduce public inconvenience," health ministry official Son Young-rae said. "Crematories' capacity is increasing ... but there are still regional differences."

Authorities have already boosted the combined daily cremation capacity from about 1,000 to 1,400 per day starting last week. But a large backlog of bodies and a long wait continued to be reported in the densely populated greater Seoul area, Son said.

Health ministry data showed that the 28 crematories in Seoul city were operating at 114.2 percent capacity as of Monday, while the ratio stood at about 83 percent in other regions such as Sejong and Jeju.

Crematories will be temporarily allowed to receive reservations from outside their regions, which is currently banned by some local governments, to ease the pileup, Son said.