Shanghai says some people may have to sleep at work even after lockdown ends: Report
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Many people in Shanghai have already been living at their workplaces for several weeks.
PHOTO: REUTERS
SHANGHAI (NYTIMES) - As China tries to balance its zero Covid-19 pandemic policy with a need to restart its economy, Shanghai has said some residents may have to live at their places of work even after it lifts a citywide lockdown.
The city, China's financial capital, told businesses over the weekend that they should start to plan for an emergence from lockdown that would include a "closed-loop management" system where workers would live on site and test regularly for the virus, without providing a timeline for when that might happen.
Officials are under pressure to get China's economy back up and running in the face of lockdowns and other virus control measures across dozens of cities.
On Monday, the country reported that its economy grew 4.8 per cent in the first three months of the year - and that figure, already below Beijing's target for the year as a whole, included a sharp slowdown in consumer spending in March as restrictions began to spread.
Many people in the city have already been living at their workplaces for several weeks.
At New York University's Shanghai campus, dozens of employees are sleeping in offices and dorms as the city enters a third week of lockdown.
At factories in Shanghai, workers are sleeping on makeshift beds. And at financial firms, some traders have set up tents and cots beside their desks.
Around 50 cleaners, engineers, security guards, student life staff and a driver at NYU's Shanghai campus agreed to live on site when the district where it is based announced an initial four-day lockdown March 28.
Three weeks later, as the city continues to try to stamp out a stubborn coronavirus outbreak, they are stranded on campus and helping to keep the university operating for the 600 students who live in campus dorms.
The employees will have to continue to live and work on campus until the lockdown in the district, Pudong, is lifted.
The school cannot swap new workers in, and those already there are not allowed to leave.
"This is a tough time for everybody, and it's especially challenging for our essential workers who can't go home at night," said Professor Jeffrey Lehman, NYU Shanghai's vice chancellor.
"I feel deeply grateful to them for all that they are doing to take care of our students and our school."