Protests against China's heavy COVID-19 curbs spread to more cities, including the financial hub Shanghai on Sunday, nearly three years into the pandemic, with a fresh wave of anger sparked by a deadly fire in the country's far west.

Shanghai-based academic Zhang Weiwei says the country’s much lower death rate shows the superiority of the Chinese governance model. Zhang also said the city was ‘days away from success’ in containing the outbreak – but critics accused him of touting one-sided propaganda

New cases declined for the ninth day, dropping 6.8 per cent to 7,333 in the previous 24 hours; symptomatic cases fell 7.7 per cent to 727. The positive outlook was sullied by 58 new cases that popped up in areas previously regarded as low-risk ‘precautionary zones’

Shanghai will start a series of measures on Friday to cut off COVID-19 transmission chains as soon as possible, local authorities said.