Shanghai on Wednesday lifted the most significant anti-Covid-19 restrictions imposed for two months on its 25 million inhabitants, a further step towards lifting containment. However, a return to normal is not expected immediately.
Several measures had already been relaxed in recent days thanks to a sharp drop in the number of positive cases. But the population could generally go out, at best, only for a few hours a day and provided they were in a neighborhood without any cases.
On Wednesday morning, Shanghainese people were heading back to work, while some stores were preparing to open. The metro and public transport were working again, AFP noted.
“This is the moment we have been waiting for for a long time”, welcomed the mayor of Shanghai on social networks.
The authorities, however, warned that the return to normal was not for now. Shopping centers, convenience stores, pharmacies and beauty salons can only operate at 75% capacity. Sports halls and cinemas will remain closed and the reopening of schools will be done on a case-by-case basis.
Imposing lowered fences
On Tuesday, imposing yellow fences that had prevented residents from leaving their homes for two months were lowered. While workers were busy dismantling the anti-Covid-19 fortifications, onlookers, masked, took advantage of their first steps in freedom.
The shutdown of China’s largest city was a crushing blow for Shanghainese. Despite a dizzying increase in positive cases in March, the municipality initially dismissed the idea of confinement, citing the importance of Shanghai for the economy.
But the authorities reversed their decision in early April to hastily confine the entire metropolis. Some inhabitants were already there long before this date. Many have been exasperated by problems with the supply of fresh produce and access to non-Covid-19 medical care.
Shanghai’s lockdown is the second longest in China since the start of the pandemic. In 2020, that of Wuhan (center), the first city in the world affected by Covid-19, lasted 76 days.
/ATS