What’s new: Some financial institutions in Shanghai are putting in place special work arrangements for their staff in order to mitigate any risks to their businesses, as a major financial district enforces a sweeping lockdown and mass testing amid the latest Covid flare-up.
Health officials of four neighborhoods within the busy Lujiazui Financial City on Wednesday evening announced lockdowns and mass testing over two days.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange, located in the district, has arranged for a small team of employees to stay at the office to ensure secure and normal operations, while the rest of the staff work from home, a person at the exchange told Caixin. Employees are still allowed to enter and leave the office with negative nucleic acid test results.
An employee at a foreign bank also said that core staff members were asked to return to the office, and they will be sleeping there.
The background: The Lujiazui Financial City, located in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, is home to many financial institutions and the offices of many foreign banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Credit Suisse AG.
Officials in the mega city of 25 million people have been battling a surging number of Covid cases caused by the highly infectious and hard-to-identify omicron BA.2 subvariant over the past few weeks. The city reported four new locally transmitted symptomatic cases on Wednesday and another 979 local asymptomatic infections, according to the city’s health commission.
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Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com)
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