Shanghai to start reopening businesses today

SHANGHAI/BEIJING • Shanghai will gradually begin reopening businesses such as shopping malls and hair salons in China's financial and manufacturing hub from today after weeks in strict Covid-19 lockdown, while Beijing continues to battle a small outbreak.

Already shut down for more than six weeks, Shanghai is tightening curbs in some areas that it hopes marks a final push in its campaign against the virus, which has infuriated and exhausted residents of China's largest and most cosmopolitan city.

Shopping malls, department stores and supermarkets will begin resuming in-store operations and allow customers to shop in "an orderly way", while hair salons and vegetable markets will reopen with limited capacity, Vice-Mayor Chen Tong said yesterday.

He gave no specifics on the pace or extent of reopenings, and many residents in the city of 25 million reacted with scepticism online.

During Shanghai's lockdown, residents were mainly limited to buying necessities, with normal online shopping largely suspended due to a shortage of couriers.

In one hopeful sign, Shanghai's subway operator began testing trains on its vast network in preparation for reopening, a local government media outlet reported, but gave no indication of when it will do so.

Shanghai residents have been frustrated by unclear or inconsistent rules as the city makes tentative steps towards easing curbs.

China's approach to Covid-19 has put hundreds of millions of people in dozens of cities under curbs of varying degrees in a bid to eliminate the spread of the disease.

The curbs are wreaking havoc on the world's second-largest economy and rattling global supply chains even as most countries try to return to normal life despite continued infections.

The Asian Football Confederation said on Saturday that China has pulled out of hosting the 2023 Asian Cup finals due to Covid-19, the latest in a wave of sporting event cancellations by China and prompting social media speculation that its zero-Covid policy could persist well into next year.

China managed to keep Covid-19 at bay after it was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, but has struggled to contain the highly infectious Omicron variant.

The World Health Organisation said last week that China's approach was not "sustainable".

China is widely expected to stick with its approach at least until the congress of the ruling Communist Party, which is historically held in the autumn. President Xi Jinping is poised to secure a precedent-breaking third leadership term at the congress.

Despite the disruptions, no senior Chinese official has spoken out publicly against a Covid-19 policy that Beijing says is saving lives.

Case numbers in Shanghai continued to improve, with 1,369 daily symptomatic and asymptomatic infections reported for Saturday, down from 1,681 a day earlier.

Importantly, the city reported no new cases outside of quarantined areas after finding one a day earlier. Consistently achieving zero cases outside quarantined areas is a key factor for officials determining when they can reopen the city.

Shanghai has achieved its zero-Covid-19 target in more thinly populated suburban districts and started easing curbs there first, such as allowing shoppers to enter supermarkets, but it continued to tighten restrictions in many areas over the past two weeks, curtailing deliveries and putting up more fencing.

In Beijing, where restaurants have been shut for dining in, several districts, including the largest, Chaoyang, yesterday extended work-from-home guidance.

Officials also announced three more days of mass daily tests for most of the city's residents. Beijing has repeatedly tested its residents and locked down buildings with positive cases as well as closed metro stations and non-essential businesses in certain neighbourhoods.

In an attempt to curb the outbreak, Fangshan district in the south-west of Beijing, which has 1.3 million residents, suspended taxi services from Saturday.

Apart from a few neighbourhoods which are under restrictions, the vast majority of Beijing's 22 million inhabitants can still leave their homes. But many public places are closed.

Beijing said it found 55 new cases in the 24 hours to 3pm yesterday, 10 of which were outside areas that are under quarantine. The city is scrambling to stamp out such community infections.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE