Shanghai eases lockdown in some areas despite new high in infections

SHANGHAI • China's financial centre of Shanghai started easing its lockdown in some areas yesterday despite reporting a fresh high of more than 26,000 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday, as the authorities strive to get the city moving again after more than two weeks.

Pressure has been mounting on the authorities in China's most populous - and one of its wealthiest - city from residents growing increasingly frustrated as the curbs dragged on, leaving some struggling to find enough food and medicine.

Shanghai is grouping residential units into three risk categories as a step towards allowing "appropriate activity" for those in neighbourhoods with no positive cases during a two-week stretch, city official Gu Honghui said.

"Each district will announce the specific names of the first batch (of communities) divided into the three types, and three subsequent lists will be announced in a timely manner," Mr Gu added.

While it was not clear how many of the city's 25 million residents will have lockdowns immediately eased, the step promises some relief for many cooped up for over three weeks in the battle against China's biggest outbreak since the coronavirus was first detected in central Wuhan in late 2019.

One video, widely shared online, showed occupants in a row of apartment blocks screaming and shouting from windows.

Reporters from The Paper, a Shanghai state-run publication, live-streamed a visit to newly announced prevention areas in the central district of Jing'an, whose occupants said they were still locked in and waiting to be notified of the next steps by their neighbourhood committees.

But they expressed joy at the news. A resident told the news outlet from the front door of her compound: "The moment we heard the news, our mood improved... It's been so many days."

She and her neighbours had been sealed off since April 1.

"Still, even though we will be let out, I've told everyone it's best not to go far. Even if you order food, best to do it online," she said.

Mr Gu said Shanghai was divided into 7,624 areas that are still sealed off, with a group of 2,460 now subject to "controls" after a week of no new infections, and 7,565 "prevention areas" to be opened up after two weeks without a positive case.

Those in "prevention areas" who move around their neighbourhoods must observe social distancing and the areas could be sealed off again if there are new infections, Mr Gu added.

One of the first districts to release its list was the industrial area of Jinshan on Shanghai's south-western edge, which posted the names of residential sites still in high-and medium-risk categories.

Some netizens criticised the easing as a big risk at a time when new daily cases hit fresh highs, but others said Shanghai had no choice.

"I think this is the Shanghai government admitting it cannot continue locking down while ensuring that its citizens don't starve to death," said a user on the Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo.

Complaints about controls continue, with some in the city's Xuhui district telling Reuters that neighbourhood committees had put locks and bicycle chains on their front doors from late Sunday to confine them to their homes.

China's zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, prescribing central quarantine for anyone testing positive even in the absence of symptoms, is increasingly strained by the highly infectious, though less deadly, Omicron variant.

Shanghai added 25,173 new asymptomatic infections on Sunday, up from 23,937 the previous day, although symptomatic cases edged down to 914 from 1,006.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG