Shanghai expands Covid-19 lockdown, life on hold in city of 26 million

A police officer in a protective suit keeps watch on a street in Shanghai, China April 1, 2022. [Aly Song, Reuters]

China's commercial hub of Shanghai ground to halt on Friday after the government locked down most of the city's 26 million residents to stop the spread of COVID-19, even as official numbers put local cases falling for the second day in a row.