Shanghai district orders mass COVID-19 testing, lockdown

BEIJING (AP) — China’s largest city of Shanghai is ordering mass testing of all 1.3 million residents of its downtown Yangpu district and confining them to their homes at least until results are known. Friday’s demand is an echo of measures ordered over the summer that led to a two-month lockdown that devastated the local economy, prompting food shortages and rare confrontations between residents and the authorities. China has shown no sign of backing away from its hardline “zero-COVID” policy since a major congress of the ruling Communist Party concluded this week by awarding authoritarian leader Xi Jinping a third five-year term in power and packed top bodies with his loyalists.