Shanghai emerges from lockdown

Lockdown blues: A resident in a bathrobe walking past a barrier at a residential area in Shanghai. — Reuters

SHANGHAI: The city will fully restore production and daily life will return to normal starting today, the local government announced.

Residents in low-risk areas should not be prevented from leaving and entering the communities they live in, noted Zong Ming, vice-mayor of Shanghai, during a press briefing yesterday.

Shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies and farm produce markets will restore offline business in accordance with epidemic control rules.

Postal and courier services are free to reopen their disposal centres and terminal outlets, and restore delivery of personalised products gradually.

“Starting from Wednesday, grade-A tourist spots will be reopened with reservation requirements and limits to tourist numbers. Parks will also be opened but operational hours must be staggered and visitor numbers limited,” said Zong.

“Indoor public venues, including cinemas, theatres, museums and gymnasiums, will not resume operations at this stage.”

Meanwhile, city authorities began dismantling fences around housing compounds and ripping police tape off public squares and buildings, to the relief of the city’s 25 million residents.

On Monday evening, some of the people allowed out of their compounds for brief walks took advantage of suspended traffic to congregate for a beer and ice cream on deserted streets, but there was a sense of wariness and anxiety among residents.

“I feel a little nervous,” said Joseph Mak, who works in education. “It’s hard to believe it’s actually happening.”

Most will be stuck indoors again until midnight, as they have been for the past two months under a ruthlessly enforced lockdown that has caused income losses, stress and despair to millions struggling to access food or get emergency healthcare.The prolonged isolation has fuelled public anger and rare protests inside Shanghai and battered the city’s manufacturing and export-heavy economy, disrupting supply chains in China and around the world, and slowing international trade.

Life is set to return to something more like normal from today, when the passes issued by residential buildings for people to go out for a few hours will be scrapped, public transport will resume and residents can go back to work.

“This is a day that we dreamed of for a very long time,” Shanghai government spokesperson Yin Xin told reporters.

Daily online news conferences will be discontinued as her colleagues, who have lived on site for the past two months as required by Covid-19 rules, will return home after midnight. — Agencies