Chinese city aims to ease lockdown as Covid cases fall

SHANGHAI WILL try to reopen within a few days as a Covid-19 outbreak in China’s largest city subsides, an official has said.

The strict lockdown of the city – now in its seventh week – is part of the ruling Communist Party’s “zero-Covid” goal that has exacted a mounting economic toll that even the World Health Organisation (WHO) says may be unsustainable.

Vice mayor Wu Qing said that the goal in Shanghai is to achieve “elimination in society” of the coronavirus, meaning any new cases would only be in people already in isolation.

That would allow for an “orderly opening, limited (population) flow, and differentiated management”, Mr Wu said.

No exact date beyond the middle of the month was given, nor did Mr Wu say how the reopening would occur except that the city intends to gradually restore industrial production, education and medical services.

Shanghai officials have made similar past assurances, only to see restrictions return even as cases wane in the city of 25 million people.

Amid a much smaller outbreak in Beijing, more daily testing has been ordered, classes have been suspended, people have been ordered to work from home, restaurants are restricted to take-away service, and many shops, tourist sites, banks and government offices have been closed.

Some communities are under lockdown and residents have been warned to avoid travelling between city districts. Shanghai reported 2,096 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, all but 227 of them in people not showing symptoms. Beijing reported 50 cases, in line with recent daily totals.

China’s foreign ministry dismissed as “irresponsible” the WHO’s doubts expressed earlier this week about continuing the “zeroCovid” approach mandating strict lockdowns, mass testing and the compulsory removal to crowded centralised quarantine centres of anyone who tests positive or is a close contact.

Experts have questioned the policy’s continued use given vaccines are widely available, and it has affected growth in the world’s second-largest economy as well as global supply chains.

However, it has become identified with China’s president and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, inset, who is determined to maintain tight social control and shore up his and the party’s authority ahead of a key party congress later this year.