The Latest Breaking News from Shanghai

China is expecting a peak in COVID-19 infections within a week, a health official said, with authorities predicting extra strain on the country's health system even as they downplay the disease's severity and continue to report no new deaths.

At the public hospital in Shanghai where Nora, a 30-year-old doctor, works, tension has spiraled since China relaxed its stringent zero-COVID policy on Dec. 7.

Months after Shanghai endured a brutal lockdown to stop the spread of COVID, the virus is starting to make its way virtually unchecked through the megacity’s 25 million population.

Shenzhen Component Index closed down 0.34%

As China lifts its stringent zero-COVID policy, public health messaging has taken a U-turn. People are grappling with the whiplash, trying to find a way to protect themselves and loved ones.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING -- Novel coronavirus infections are spreading rapidly in China following Beijing's altering of the nation's zero-COVID policy designed to contain the disease. The Chinese government puts the number of COVID-related deaths for December at four as of Sunday, but the figure clearly does not reflect the actual situation.

Concerned Chinese Australians have begun sending over-the-counter cold and flu medication to family members in China amid a surge there in COVID-19 cases that has depleted local stocks.

A photograph recently circulated on social media purportedly showing two Chinese professors in Shanghai standing between a squad of police officers and students protesting the government’s zero-COVID policies.

SHANGHAI: Covid-19 is sweeping through trading floors in Beijing and spreading fast in the financial hub of Shanghai, with illness and absence thinning already light trade and forcing regulators to cancel a weekly meeting vetting public share sales.