Shanghai reports 4,144 new asymptomatic, 358 new symptomatic COVID cases for March 31

FILE PHOTO: COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's financial hub of Shanghai reported 4,144 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases and 358 symptomatic cases for March 31, the city government said on its official WeChat account on Friday.

That compared with 5,298 new asymptomatic cases and 355 new cases with symptoms reported a day earlier.

Shanghai put the vast majority of its residents under COVID lockdown from Friday, as it expanded curbs to include the western half of the city and extended restrictions in the east where people have already been forced to stay home since Monday.

(Reporting by Winni Zhou, Jing Wang and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar)