Shanghai Covid: China announces largest city-wide lockdown

China has announced its biggest city-wide lockdown since the Covid outbreak began more than two years ago.

The city of Shanghai will be locked down in two stages over nine days while authorities carry out Covid-19 testing, reports BBC.

The important financial hub has battled a new wave of infections for nearly a month, although case numbers are not high by some international standards.

Authorities had so far resisted locking down the city of some 25 million people to avoid destabilising the economy.

But after Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the early days of the pandemic, authorities appear to have changed course.

The lockdown will happen in two stages, with the eastern side of the city under restrictions from Monday until 1 April, and the western side from 1-5 April.