Shanghai (China)- Authorities in Shanghai say they will take significant steps toward reopening China’s largest city following a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has slowed the national economy and largely trapped millions of people in their homes.
Full bus and subway service and rail connections to the rest of China will be restored, Vice Mayor Zong Ming said Tuesday at a daily news conference on the city’s outbreak.
Schools will reopen partially voluntarily for students. In contrast, shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores, and drug stores will reopen gradually with no more than 75 percent of their total capacity. Cinemas and fitness centres will remain closed.
Officials, who set June 1 as the target date for reopening earlier in May, 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 at least some chat groups, cynicism about the slow pace and stop-and-go nature of opening up gave way Tuesday to excitement about the prospect of being able to move about freely in the city for the first time since the end of March. On Monday,
On Monday, Shanghai recorded 29 new cases, continuing a steady decline from more than 20,000 a day in April. At a meeting on Monday, Li Qiang, the top official from China’s ruling Communist Party in Shanghai, said that the city had made significant achievements in fighting the outbreak through continuous struggle.
The success came at a price. Authorities imposed a suffocating citywide lockdown under China’s “zero-COVID” strategy to snuff out an outbreak with mass testing and isolation at centralized facilities of anyone infected.
Schools will reopen for the final two years of high school and the third year of middle school, but students can decide whether to attend in person. Other grades and kindergarten remain closed.
Beijing, the nation’s 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 cases on Monday.