China’s most populous city, which was released from lockdown for two months just last week, spotted 11 new infections on Thursday, six outside the city’s mass quarantine centers. The measures will affect eight of the 16 districts of the financial hub, including Pudong, one of the worst-hit areas at the start of the lockdown. Three cases were reported at the Red Rose Beauty Parlor in the city center, prompting health authorities to examine more than 90,000 people near the salon. Just days earlier, local Xuhui party body wrote a celebratory post on the Weibo microblogging platform welcoming the salon reopening on June 1 for clients who had spent weeks without a professional haircut. He said the resumption of work at the state-run hair salon reflects the way in which the “pandemic situation” in the city has “improved.” The post has since been removed. Wang Hongwei, a local party official in Xuhui District, said authorities were investigating whether the salon had introduced adequate anti-virus measures after one of its employees was found not to have taken a mandatory PCR test. The city government directive on lockdown means that residents in the affected areas will not be allowed to leave their associations during the mass testing rounds. The reintroduction of the restrictions a few days after the flood of city dwellers on the streets of Shanghai underlined the difficulty of eliminating the highly infectious Omicron variant through mass testing and strict restrictions. China’s adherence to its controversial zero Covid policy has hit the economy and the latest restrictions will further burden consumer spending. Producer prices in China rose at a slower pace to more than a year in May as lockdowns pushed down demand for major industrial products. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics released on Friday showed that prices rose by just 6.4 percent compared to the same period last year, the lowest factory gateway inflation rate since March 2021. Any decision to extend the lockdown beyond the weekend will depend on how many community cases are uncovered by mass trials. Covid tests have become a regular part of life in China. Cities have issued orders that anyone wishing to enter a public place must undergo regular tests.

Shanghai has set up about 15,000 test sites for its 26 million people. Experts said the huge spending on testing programs and the expansion of existing quarantine facilities was a sign that policymakers planned to stick to the Covid zero strategy by 2023, despite the high financial cost. Following the news of the impending lockdown, the Shanghaiers rushed to the supermarkets to stock up on fresh food in preparation for another extended closure. Beijing is also on high alert after a series of incidents were reported in Chaoyang on Thursday, linked to entertainment venues in the capital’s largest district. Additional references by Maiqi Ding in Beijing, Wang Xueqiao in Shanghai and William Langley in Hong Kong