Authorities in Shanghai announced they would take major steps to reopen China’s biggest city on Wednesday after a two-month lockdown linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has slowed the national economy and locked down much of it. millions of people in their homes.
Full bus and subway service will be restored, as will basic rail connections to the rest of China, Vice Mayor Zong Ming said at a daily news conference on the city’s outbreak on Tuesday. .
“The outbreak has been effectively brought under control,” she said, adding that the city would begin the process of fully restoring work and other activities on Wednesday.
Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis for students and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies will continue to reopen gradually without exceeding 75% of their total capacity. Sports halls and cinemas will remain closed.
Officials, who set June 1 as the target date for reopening earlier in May, appear poised 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 to go out for a few hours at a time. In online chat groups, some expressed excitement at being able to move freely around the city for the first time since late March, while others remained cautious given the slow and intermittent nature of reopening so far.
Workers were dismantling some of the barriers that had been erected along sidewalks during the lockdown. A few people walked or cycled through the still mostly empty streets. A man was having his hair cut on the sidewalk as a worker or volunteer in full protective gear looked on.
More than half a million people in the city of 25 million will not be allowed outside on Wednesday – 190,000 who are still in containment zones and another 450,000 who are in control zones due to recent cases.
Shanghai recorded 29 new cases on Monday, continuing a steady decline from more than 20,000 a day in April. Li Qiang, a senior official of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, reportedly told a meeting on Monday that the city has made major progress in fighting the epidemic through continuous efforts.
Success had a price. Authorities have imposed a citywide lockdown as part of China’s “zero-COVID” strategy, which aims to quell any outbreaks with mass testing and isolation in centralized facilities for anyone infected.
However, the latest economic data showed Chinese manufacturing activity started to rebound in May as the government rolled back some lockdown measures.
Schools will reopen for the last two years of high school and the third year of middle school, but students can decide whether or not to attend in person. The other levels and kindergarten remain closed.
Outdoor tourist sites will begin to reopen on Wednesday, with indoor sites expected to follow in late June, the Shanghai tourism authority said. Group visits from other provinces will be allowed again when the city has cleared all high and medium risk pandemic areas.