Shanghai is expected to complete weeklong screening tests by Thursday in its effort to realize zero COVID-19 transmission in communities, the municipal government said on Monday.

The government urged the public to participate in the tests, which include both nucleic acid tests and antigen tests to identify infections as early as possible and halt the spread of the disease.

"We encourage all residents to make joint efforts to help the city return to normal production and living order as soon as possible," Wu Qianyu, primary inspector of the Shanghai Health Commission, said at a news briefing on Monday.

During the campaign, which kicked off on Friday, residents in lockdown zones were scheduled to take nucleic acid tests once a day, and those in controlled zones take antigen tests on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and nucleic acid tests on Wednesday. Residents in precautionary zones are required to take antigen tests twice during the seven days.

The municipality started implementing an epidemic control system on April 11 that categorizes communities according to three COVID-19 risk levels: lockdown, controlled and precautionary.

Lockdown zones refer to neighborhoods that reported new infections over the past seven days. Controlled zones refer to compounds where no infections were reported over the past week. Precautionary zones are communities that have not reported infections over the past 14 days.

Shanghai reported 2,417 locally transmitted confirmed cases and 19,831 asymptomatic infections on Sunday. It was the 10th consecutive day in which the number of newly reported infections in the city surpassed 20,000.

The city also reported three COVID-19 fatalities on Sunday, the first deaths in the city's current outbreak, which began at the start of March.

The people in each of those three cases－two were age 91 and one age 89－suffered from multiple serious preexisting medical conditions, including acute coronary syndrome, diabetes, hypertension and cerebral infarction, according to the municipal government. None were vaccinated.

"They were identified as having been severe cases upon being admitted to the hospital. Their conditions continued to worsen, and they died despite all-out rescue efforts. The direct cause of their death was their underlying diseases," said Wu.

As of Sunday, there were 16 severely ill COVID-19 patients in Shanghai, Wu added.

At the same time, a total of 733 COVID-19 patients and 19,473 people with asymptomatic infections were discharged and released from medical observation after recovery on Sunday.

They were sent back to their residences and required to follow seven-day self-health monitoring at home.

In general, the city government said, the situation in Pudong, Songjiang and Qingpu districts had continued to improve over the past three days, while that in Minhang, Xuhui, Huangpu, Baoshan, Yangpu, Hongkou, Changning and Jiading districts remained mostly stable with slight fluctuations.

Meanwhile, the epidemic situation has stabilized in Fengxian, Jinshan and Chongming districts.

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