Shanghai authorities say important steps will be taken today to reopen China’s largest city after a two-month blockade by COVID-19 that has pushed back the national economy and largely confined millions of people to their homes. his.
A steady stream of people was already strolling through the Bund, the city’s historic seafront park, on a pleasant Tuesday night, with some taking selfies against the bright lights of Pudong’s financial district on the other side of the sea. River.
Elsewhere, people gathered outside to eat and drink under the watchful eye of the deployed police to deter the formation of large crowds.
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Lu Kexin, a high school student visiting the Bund for the first time since late March, said she went crazy being trapped at home for so long.
“I’m very happy, extremely happy, even too happy,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Zong Ming announced that the full bus and subway service will be restored on Wednesday, as well as basic rail connections with the rest of China.
Schools will partially reopen voluntarily, and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drugstores will gradually reopen to no more than 75 percent of their total capacity.
Cinemas and gyms will be closed.
“The epidemic has been effectively controlled,” Zong said.
Residents in Shanghai, China, are regaining a taste of normal life after two months of a strict blockade of COVID-19. (AP)
He added that the city will enter the phase of total restoration of the work and life on Wednesday.
Officials, who set June 1 as the target date for the reopening in early May, appear ready to accelerate what has been a gradual relaxation in recent days.
Some malls and markets have reopened and some residents have received passes that allow them to go out for a few hours at a time.
Travelers return to the road. Authorities believe the city’s outbreak has been brought under control. (AP)
In the online chat groups, some expressed excitement about being able to move freely around the city for the first time since the end of March, while others remained cautious given the slow pace and nature of the stop. stopping the opening. far.
Workers tore down some of the barriers that had been raised on the sidewalks during the confinement.
Some people walked or cycled through the still-empty streets.
A man cut his hair on the sidewalk, a common sight in recent days, while looking at a worker or volunteer in full protective clothing.
The hardest part of the confinement was psychological, said Cao Yue, who has worked in Shanghai for five years.
He remembered the early days when it was hard to buy food and he didn’t know what to do.
“It was pretty depressing to be locked up at home and see all of Shanghai locked up,” he said.
More than half a million people in the city of 25 million will not be able to leave on Wednesday: 190,000 who are still in areas of blockade and 450,000 more who are in control areas because they live near recent cases.
Scenes of hairdressers have been seen around the city serving customers on the sidewalk. (AP)
Shanghai registered 29 new cases on Monday, continuing a steady decline from more than 20,000 a day in April.
Li Qiang, the top official of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, said at a meeting Monday that the city had achieved great success in fighting the outbreak through continuous struggle.
Success came at a price. Authorities imposed a suffocating blockade on the entire city under China’s “zero-COVID” strategy aimed at extinguishing any outbreaks with massive testing and isolation at centralized facilities of any infected person.
Large temporary facilities were set up in exhibition centers and other spaces to house thousands of people who had tested positive.
Healthcare teams and other workers flew across the country to help run the massive enterprise.
Children can play outside again. (AP)
Factories were closed or they were only allowed to operate if workers slept on site to prevent the spread of the virus.
The reduction in production at semiconductor plants has added to the global shortage of chips.
The containers marched back to the port of Shanghai due to the shortage of truckers to deliver them to their destinations.
However, ruling Communist Party leaders have repeatedly expressed their determination to adhere to the “zero-COVID” policy even when other countries have opened their borders and are trying to “live with the virus.” .
External economists widely expect China not to reach its 5.5% growth target for this year.
However, the latest economic data showed that Chinese manufacturing activity began to recover in May, as the government withdrew some containment measures.
Schools will reopen the last two years of high school and the third year of high school, but students can decide whether to attend in person.
Other courses and kindergarten remain closed.
Outdoor tourist sites will begin reopening on Wednesday, and indoor sites will continue in late June, the Shanghai Tourism Authority said.
Group visits from other provinces will be allowed again when the city has eliminated all high- and medium-risk pandemic areas.
Beijing, the country’s capital, eased further restrictions on Tuesday in some districts.
The city imposed limited blockades, but nothing near a city-wide level, in a much smaller outbreak that appears to be declining. Beijing registered 18 new cases on Monday.