On Friday, China's President Xi Jinping praised the country's "examined" zero-Covid strategy, as Shanghai authorities prepared nearly 130,000 beds for COVID-19 patients amid escalating circumstances and mounting public outrage.
Until March, China kept conditions low by enforcing localized lockdowns, mass testing, and strict restrictions on international travel.
The country has reported hundreds of daily incidents in recent weeks, with financial hub and outbreak epicenter Shanghai placed under lockdown due to rapidly spreading infections of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
"At the ceremony in Beijing, some foreign athletes told us that if there was a gold medal for epidemic response, it should go to China," Xi said.
Authorities in Hangzhou announced that 130,000 new beds have been prepared or are being built for COVID-positive residents in the city, including exposition halls.
On Friday, the city reported more than 21,000 new infections, the vast majority of which were asymptomatic.
However, President Xi praised the country's COVID response on Friday, saying at an event to honor Olympic athletes that the country's handling of the current Winter Games confirmed that its virus coverage "once more withstood the check."
Last week, Shanghai's roughly 25 million residents were locked down in stages, resulting in scenes of panic buying and mass testing.
Residents have begun to resent the restrictions, with some taking to social media to complain about food shortages and to express their outrage over the death of a pet corgi by health workers.
Meanwhile, after public outrage over the rule separating COVID-positive children from their virus-free mother and father, officers softened their stance.
Beijing, on the other hand, is sticking to its zero-tolerance policy and is preparing to quell the Shanghai outbreak by dispatching 38,000 medical personnel and a couple of thousand troops from across the country as reinforcements.
According to the state-run People's Daily newspaper, China should "never grow numb, never grow tired of fighting, and never grow slack," which declared zero-COVID to be the "best choice" for the country on Friday.
The outbreak has taken on an increasingly serious financial dimension, with China's manufacturing facility output falling to its lowest level in two years in March, according to unbiased indices released by Chinese language media group Caixin.
Researchers have warned that if restrictions are abruptly relaxed, China could face a "colossal outbreak" that would overwhelm its medical system.
