Covid-19: Shanghai prepares to lift lengthy lockdown

BEIJING: China’s financial hub, Shanghai, is set to reopen on Wednesday after a sobering battle against an Omicrondriven Covid-19 outbreak, which put millions of its residents behind a suffocating lockdown since March and throttled the national economy with its impact on supply chain networks.

More than 560 people have died in the city and the caseload has crossed the 650,000mark over the course of the outbreak, the worst in China since the first Covid-19 (coronavirus) cases appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The city reported 31 cases including 22 asymptomatic cases for Monday, a dramatic drop from the record 25,000 cases a day the city was seeing just weeks ago.

“Shanghai will fully restore the normal order of production and living across the city starting from Wednesday, on the premise of containing the overall risk of Covid-19,” the Shanghai

municipal government announced on Tuesday.

Government workers began dismantling fences put up to isolate apartment complexes over the weekend - a symbol of the city being freed up from a strict lockdown that prevented millions from stepping out of their homes for weeks.

Public transport systems, including bus and subway services will be fully restored from Wednesday, deputy mayor,

Zong Ming, said at a press conference on Tuesday, adding

that the entire rail transit network and ferry services will also resume operations.

“Private cars and corporate vehicles can ply normally except in areas designated as medium and high-risk for Covid-19, and those under closedoff management or restrictive control,” Zong said.