Shanghai has postponed the national college entrance examination to July due to the COVID-19 epidemic, according to a news conference held on Saturday.

The examination, or gaokao, which was scheduled to be held in June, is now deferred to July 7 - 9, the city's vice-mayor Chen Qun said.

Shanghai is experiencing a severe flare-up of the COVID-19 outbreak, and the city has logged around 600,000 local infections since March 1.