Shanghai moves toward ending its costly 2-month COVID-19 lockdown
SHANGHAI — Authorities say they will take some major steps Wednesday toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has throttled the national economy and largely bottled up millions of Shanghai residents in their homes.
Full bus and subway service will be restored, as will basic rail connections with the rest of China, Vice Mayor Zong Ming said Tuesday at a daily news conference on the city’s outbreak.
“The epidemic has been effectively controlled,” she said, adding that the city would start the process of fully restoring work and life Wednesday.
Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis for students, and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will continue to reopen gradually, with no more than 75% of their total capacity allowed. Cinemas and gyms will remain closed.
Officials, who earlier this month had set Wednesday as the target date for reopening, appear ready to accelerate what has been a gradual easing in recent days. A few malls and markets have reopened, and some residents have been given passes allowing them out for a few hours at a time.
In online chat groups, some residents expressed excitement about the prospect of being able to move about freely in the city for the first time since the end of March, while others remained cautious given the slow pace and stop-and-go nature of opening up so far.
China is trying to tackle its biggest coronavirus outbreak without a tool it could have adopted months ago: Western-developed mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
Workers were taking down some of the barriers that had been erected along sidewalks during the lockdown. A few people walked or biked on the still mostly empty streets. One man was getting his hair cut on the sidewalk, as a worker or volunteer in full protective clothing looked on.
More than half a million people in the city of 25 million won’t be allowed out Wednesday — 190,000 who are still in lockdown areas and another 450,000 who are in control zones because of recent cases.
Shanghai recorded 29 new coronavirus cases Monday, continuing a steady decline from more than 20,000 a day in April. Li Qiang, the top official from China’s ruling Communist Party in Shanghai, was quoted as saying at a meeting Monday that the city had made major achievements in fighting the outbreak through continuous struggle.
The success came at a price. Authorities imposed a suffocating citywide lockdown under China’s zero-tolerance COVID-19 strategy, which aims to snuff out any outbreak with mass testing and isolation at centralized facilities of anyone who is infected.
As Xi Jinping prepares for a third term as China’s president, he must confront COVID, a slowing economy and other issues that threaten his hold on power
Huge temporary facilities were set up in exhibition centers and other venues to house thousands of people who tested positive. Teams of healthcare and other workers flew in from around the country to help run the massive undertaking.
Factories were shuttered, or were allowed to operate only if workers slept on site to prevent the spread of the virus. Reduced production at semiconductor plants added to the global chip shortage. Containers got backed up at the port of Shanghai because of a shortage of truck drivers to deliver them to their destinations.
Through it all, leaders of the ruling Communist Party repeatedly expressed a determination to stick to its zero-tolerance policy even as other countries have opened their borders and are trying to “live with the virus.” Outside economists widely expect China to fall short of its 5.5% growth target for this year.
However, the latest economic data showed that Chinese manufacturing activity started to rebound in May as the government rolled back some containment measures.
Nineteen California counties, including Orange, Ventura and San Diego, enter a worse COVID tier. Los Angeles County is already in the worse tier.
Schools will reopen for students in their final two years of high school or third year of middle school, but they can decide whether to attend in person. Other grades remain closed.
Outdoor tourist sites will start reopening Wednesday, with indoor sites set to follow in late June, the Shanghai tourism authority said. Group tours from other provinces will be allowed again when the city has eliminated all high- and medium-risk pandemic zones.
Beijing, the capital, further eased restrictions Tuesday in some districts. The city imposed limited lockdowns, but nothing near a citywide level, in a much smaller outbreak that appears to be on the wane.
Beijing recorded 18 new coronavirus cases on Monday.
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