Today’s coronavirus news: Beijing goes to extreme lengths to avoid Shanghai COVID woes

The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Tuesday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.

6:30 a.m US Vice President Kamala Harris tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday, six days after she was diagnosed with a virus case, the White House said.

Harris, who is 57 and received two booster shots before testing positive, will continue wearing a mask for 10 days after exiting isolation, according to the White House.

She has quarantined at Number One Observatory Circle, the vice president’s residence, since receiving positive results on multiple tests last Tuesday.

“Today, the Vice President tested negative for COVID-19 on a rapid antigen test,” Kirsten Allen, the vice president’s press secretary, said in a statement on Monday. “The Vice President will return to work, in person, tomorrow.”

Harris’ positive test, which followed a West Coast trip, came as COVID continues to crawl around Capitol Hill.

6:30 a.m New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan declared Monday morning that the city has elevated its COVID-19 threat level to a “medium risk alert” due to a recent increase in cases.

It’s the first time Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has upgraded the COVID-19 threat level since he took control of City Hall on Jan. 1.

Prior to Monday, the city was on “low risk alert.”

“Cases have now surpassed a rate of 200 per 100,000 people in the five boroughs. As a practical matter, what this means for New Yorkers is that they must exercise even greater caution than they have the last few weeks,” Vasan said in a written statement issued Monday. “If you are at a higher risk for severe disease due to age, underlying health conditions or because you are unvaccinated, consider additional precautions such as avoiding crowded indoor gatherings.”

According to the most recent data put out by the city, the number of new cases per 100,000 people counted over the last week reached 209 as of April 29. New hospital admissions stands at 6.7 per 100,000 people, and the percentage of in-patient beds occupied COVID-19 patients is now 2.89%. All of those measures are increasing.

In early April, Vasan said he expected to raise the city’s COVID-19 threat level in the coming days, but the city stopped short of that at the time, with Adams noting that he and city health officials were weighing the data.

6:30 a.m China’s capital is deploying an increasingly hardcore playbook to contain its nascent COVID-19 outbreak, from repeat testing of most residents to barring access to public places without a negative result as it seeks to avoid the chaos seen in Shanghai.

Beijing halted dining-in at restaurants for the duration of the May Day holiday, which runs through Wednesday, made entry into places like parks and monuments dependent on a negative COVID test and has shuttered gyms. Officials on Tuesday urged residents not to leave the city unnecessarily, with only people with green health codes and who have received a negative COVID test within 48 hours able to leave.

Residents in areas deemed to be medium or high risk, those who live in controlled areas, and people in towns or villages that have one or more infections are not able to depart the city, officials said at a briefing. Schools will suspend in-person classes between May 5 and 11, with districts set to make plans for online learning.

Authorities have also locked down apartment blocks — forcing some residents to stay in their homes, not allowed out for groceries or exercise — and ordered another three rounds of mass testing to rein in an outbreak that saw 62 new cases Monday, according to the state-run CCTV, up from 41 on Sunday.

In Shanghai, new infections fell to 5,669 from 7,333. The financial hub’s experience is a cautionary tale for Beijing officials seeking to maintain China’s COVID Zero strategy, an approach that’s leaving the country increasingly isolated as the rest of the world opens up.

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