Shanghai Authorities Relax COVID-19 Restrictions In Some Areas, Residents Can Leave Their Homes After Two Weeks

COVID-19 vaccination center in Shanghai, China. (Wikimedia Commons/SSYoung)

JAKARTA - Residents of Shanghai, China were able to leave their homes for the first time on Tuesday, after authorities took tentative steps to ease lockdowns, amid fears of the economic impact of tighter restrictions.

With a quarter of the population under what it describes as a 'full or partial lockdown', China's leadership is taking increasing steps to reduce the economic toll from its zero-COVID strategy, as factories continue to announce production curbs, but remain reluctant to risk a wave of infections. the greater one.

Shanghai said on Monday more than 7,000 settlements, which local media reported as home to about 4.8 million of its 25 million population, had been classified as lower risk, after no new infections for 14 days. Local officials have announced which housing complexes can open.

But, while some people were allowed out on Tuesday, there is still confusion about how freely they can move around, with many awaiting permission from their housing committee.

One resident said he briefly left the house to ride a scooter on Tuesday morning after getting permission from his compound, only to be told later that he could no longer do so.

"You know how things change very quickly. If you can get out, you better do it fast, because you don't know if it can change in the next hour," said the resident, who asked not to be named.

Meanwhile, officials said the daily infection rate was likely to remain high in the next few days, with Shanghai still struggling to contain the outbreak, the biggest in China since the coronavirus was discovered in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan.

"The epidemic is in a phase of rapid escalation, with social contagion still not being effectively controlled," Lei Zhenglong of the National Health Commission told a briefing in Beijing.

"Estimates for the next few days the number of people infected will remain at high levels," he said.

Amid concerns about tight restrictions, the United States Department of State ordered non-emergency government employees to leave its consulate in Shanghai.

On Tuesday, German auto parts giant Bosch said it was suspending production at its factories in Shanghai and Changchun City, the COVID-19-hit province of Jilin Province. The other two factories, one in Shanghai and the other in Taicang, operate on a closed-loop system, with workers isolated within the factory premises.

Nomura estimates that as many as 45 Chinese cities are now in full or partial lockdown, accounting for 26.4 percent of the country's population and 40.3 percent of its GDP.

Separately, Premier Li Keqiang warned on Monday that China needed to be "very vigilant" against further economic pressure, saying the fight against COVID-19 needed to be coordinated with economic and social development.

Liu Min, deputy head of the Shanghai commercial commission, said efforts were being made to reopen supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies, but non-essential businesses would remain suspended.

On Monday, the total new asymptomatic cases in Shanghai fell 11 percent from the previous day to 22,348, with confirmed symptomatic cases rising to 994 from 914.