Shanghai targets turnaround in virus situation by Wednesday

SHANGHAI • Chinese financial hub Shanghai has set a target to stop the spread of Covid-19 outside of quarantined areas by Wednesday, two people familiar with the matter said.

This would allow the city to further ease its lockdown and start returning to normal life as public frustrations grow.

The target will require officials to accelerate Covid-19 testing and the transfer of positive cases to quarantine centres, according to a speech by a local Communist Party of China official dated Saturday, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

Ending community-level transmission has been a turning point for other Chinese localities that went into lockdown, such as Shenzhen city which last month reopened public transport and let businesses go back into operation shortly after achieving that target.

Shanghai has become the epicentre of China's largest outbreak since the virus was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019, and has recorded more than 320,000 Covid-19 infections since early last month when its surge began.

Frustrated Shanghai residents have taken to social media to vent their anger at the local authorities over difficulties sourcing food, lost income, separated families and poor conditions at central quarantine centres. Tensions have on occasion erupted into public protests or scuffles with police.

Shanghai has already taken piecemeal steps to ease restrictions. State TV reported yesterday that some supermarkets had reopened their doors to shoppers, although many residents expressed disbelief in social media postings.

Shanghai's new target of "zero-Covid at the community level" by April 20 was communicated in recent days to the city's Communist Party cadres and organisations such as schools, according to the sources, who declined to be named as the information was not public.

A speech dated Saturday by the party secretary of the city's Baoshan district described it as an order that had come as the city's situation reached a "critical moment", with growing public anxiety and food supply pressures.

"The State Council Working Group, the municipal party committee and municipal government have asked that the turning point of the epidemic should appear on the 17th and that zero-Covid status should be reached on the 20th," Mr Chen Jie said in the speech.

"This is a military order, there is no room for bargaining, we can only grit our teeth and fight for victory. It can also be said this is a total attack, a last-ditch battle to reverse the trend of the epidemic."

Shanghai also published plans to resume production in the city after weeks of lockdown snarled up supply chains and dealt a blow to the Chinese economy.

Businesses should formulate plans for closed-loop management, where workers live on-site and are tested regularly. They should also apply for approval to restart production with the authorities at the district and city levels, Shanghai's Economic and Information Technology Commission said in a statement on its WeChat account.

Under the new work resumption plan, different parts of the factories must be separated, and all staff should work and live in designated locations, reducing direct contact with people in other areas as much as possible.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG