Residents celebrate as restrictions ease
They strolled and cycled through their own city like dazed tourists. They honked car horns and lit fireworks.
As Shanghai eased one of the longest, toughest lockdowns anywhere since the pandemic began, many of its 25 million residents celebrated being free to move around. The reopening Wednesday came after Shanghai’s twomonth siege against COVID-19 had set off public anger over shortages of food and medicine as well as the harsh enforcement of quarantine rules.
For now at least, that anger gave way to relief after the government wound back many restrictions. During the day, people — all wearing masks — basked in the novelty of previously mundane pleasures like meeting friends and relatives, strolling in parks, and driving through streets that had been largely empty since early April. Hairdressers were, as in many cities freed from lockdowns, busy.
“Everyone had these problems at the time and felt a bit confounded about what to do,” said Tang Xianchun, a Shanghai resident. “But those problems came to be resolved, and now everyone is feeling good that the restrictions are lifting.”
Shanghai ordered residents to stay home and businesses to shut from early April to try to stifle the spread of the omicron variant. City leaders had initially said they could contain the outbreak with limited restrictions. But top officials ordered tougher measures as infections climbed to more than 20,000 each day.
With daily infections now falling to low double digits, the government has launched an urgent effort to revive factories, companies and supply lines. China’s economy slowed sharply in April and May, in large part because of Shanghai’s lockdown.
“The task of speeding up the economic and social recovery is increasingly urgent,” Shanghai city leaders said in a letter to residents. “We will put all our energy into fully restoring regular production and life.”
Yet even as authorities eased the lockdown, they retained some major restrictions on movement. People must still undergo regular COVID testing to use public transport or enter many public places. Despite the easing, hundreds of thousands of Shanghai residents remain locked in their housing compounds because of infections in their areas.