Shanghai has reported the first three COVID-19 deaths in the recent outbreak in the eastern Chinese port city.

The city’s government on Monday said that the three people who died were older patients who were also otherwise ill.

In mid-March, two deaths were reported in Jilin province in north-eastern China, which were considered the first in the country in more than a year.

Independent experts are doubtful of the accuracy of the official coronavirus infection and death figures from Beijing, which had at that point put the date of the last recorded COVID-19 death as January 25, 2021.

Shanghai is at the centre of the largest COVID-19 wave in China since the pandemic began more than two years ago.

The vast majority of the Shanghai area population of 26 million has been in lockdown since the end of March.

There is growing resentment in the megacity – China’s economic and financial centre – over insufficient food supplies, problems with medical care or infected children being kept apart from their parents due to quarantine rules.

It is unclear how long the lockdown will last.

Authorities reported that more than 2400 confirmed new COVID-19 infections and more than 19,800 asymptomatic cases were again detected in Shanghai on Sunday.

The port city counts the majority of the new infections counted nationwide in China.