Health workers wearing protective gear work along a street in Jing'an district in Shanghai. AFP

The United States said Tuesday it had ordered all non-essential employees at its Shanghai consulate to leave, voicing concerns for the safety of Americans in China as the government enforces hard lockdowns to contain Covid-19.

Many residents in the city of 26 million have been confined to their homes for up to three weeks as China maintains its "zero-COVID” strategy of handling outbreaks with strict isolation and mass testing.

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But people living under the restrictions have described an increasingly desperate situation, with families unable to leave their homes or obtain food and daily necessities, while people who test positive for the coronavirus have been forced into mass quarantine centers where conditions at times have been called crowded and unsanitary.

China has stuck to a policy of "zero Covid", aiming to eliminate all infections through rigid shutdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions.

People who test positive for the coronavirus have been forced into mass quarantine.

But the policy has come under strain since March, with more than 100,000 cases in Shanghai leading to a lockdown of the city's 25 million inhabitants.

That has sparked widespread outcry over food shortages and an inflexible policy of sending anyone who tests positive to quarantine centres.

The US State Department ordered the departure "due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak", a spokesperson from its Beijing embassy said in a statement.

American diplomats have also raised "concerns about the safety and welfare of US citizens with People's Republic of China officials", the statement added.

"It is best for our employees and their families to be reduced in number and our operations to be scaled down as we deal with the changing circumstances on the ground," it read.