Thursday’s edition of The Daily Wire “Morning Wire” podcast reported that one of China’s largest cities, Shanghai, suddenly imposed a widespread lockdown this week in response to reports of rapidly rising COVID-19 cases.
On Monday, half of Shanghai — the financial capital of China — went into lockdown in response to what authorities believe is a COVID-19 outbreak that is getting out of control, the podcast noted.
On Sunday, Shanghai announced a two-part lockdown of the city, and then reported a record 3,500 new COVID-19 cases, with cases reportedly doubling every few days.
The “Morning Wire” podcast also noted that these numbers are from the Chinese government, “meaning it is likely they are under-reporting the real numbers.”
On Monday, authorities were putting up barricades shutting off parts of the city, with public transport shut down in many areas. All the residents living east and south of a river that divides the city will be under lockdown until Friday morning. At that point, the lockdown could potentially end, and shift over to the other side of the river.
Some companies based in the city, such as Tesla, suspended manufacturing for a few days, while other factories have been allowed to continue in a closed-loop system.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that Tesla would not be re-opening its Shanghai plant because of the lockdown and other government orders:
Tesla has cancelled plans to resume production at its Shanghai factory on Friday and Saturday, an internal notice seen by Reuters showed, further delaying reopening of the manufacturing hub for its Model 3 and Model Y cars.
The Shanghai factory, located in the Pudong district east of the city’s Huangpu River, suspended production from Monday to Thursday after the city launched a two-stage lockdown to combat a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The lockdown on districts east of the river is scheduled to lift in the early hours of April 1 and the U.S. automaker initially planned to resume production that day. However, the latest notice seen by Reuters said that it has cancelled production plans for April 1 and April 2.
The sudden change in policy has reportedly sparked panic among residents, with many rushing to markets to get basic necessities like food before the lockdown began.
The lockdown could have an international impact as well. As of now, many of the city’s major production centers and its port are still running, but even if they stay open, the international supply chain will likely feel the strain as the flow of goods from factories to the port is going to be affected as the lockdown hits truck drivers and storage facilities.
The “Morning Wire” podcast can be listened to here.