However, Shanghai has not reported any new Covid related deaths in the city since the outbreak of the latest wave of the virus.

But officials working at the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital in the city's eastern Pudong area have described the situation as dire and the desperate attempts to help dozens of elderly patients.

Since then the hospital has been sealed off, and specialist teams from the municipal centre for disease control have been trying to contain the spread.

One care worker said she had seen at least one patient die, and heard of a colleague who had dealt with another dead patient.

But workers say that it is hard to tell if the victims had died from Covid as there have been many infections.

Some witnesses said that both the medical staff and experts sent in by the Shanghai government were also infected, saying hundreds of people there had been infected with Covid.

(With UNI inputs)