US approves departure of non-essential staff from Shanghai due to Covid

Citizens have been warned against travelling to China

American citizens are discouraged from travelling to Shanghai, China. AP

The US on Friday authorised the “voluntary departure” of non-essential staff from its consulate in Shanghai and recommended that Americans not travel to China owing to tough Covid restrictions there.

The families of all US personnel are also allowed to leave, the State Department said.

The agency advised US citizens against travelling to Shanghai, China's economic capital and largest city, “due to Covid-19 related restrictions, including the risk of parents and children being separated".

China has been battling its worst wave of infections since the start of the pandemic and Shanghai has been under total or partial lockdown for two weeks, with more than 25 million people ordered to stay at home.

China, where the coronavirus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, is among the last remaining places in the world to enforce a zero-Covid approach to the pandemic.

In Shanghai, the government implemented a policy of separating coronavirus-positive children from parents who tested negative, but then had to relax it following criticism.