Shanghai Authority Plans To Ease COVID-19 Lockdown In Some Areas, Despite Spike In Infections

JAKARTA - The authorities of Shanghai, China are planning to relax lockdowns in several regions starting today, despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new COVID-19 infections, as they seek to revive China's financial hub.

Shanghai has classified residential units into three risk categories, to allow those in areas without positive cases for two weeks, to engage in "appropriate activities" in their neighborhoods, said City official Gu Honghui.

"Each district will announce the specific names of the first group (community) which is divided into three types, and the next three lists will be announced at an appropriate time", he told a news conference.

The announcement promises relief to some of the city's 25 million residents, many of whom are struggling to find food and medicine after more than three weeks of lockdown, in the battle against China's biggest outbreak since the Coronavirus was first discovered in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.

One of the first districts to release its list was southwest Jinshan, which posted the names of residential areas still in the high and medium risk categories on its official channel, the messaging app Weibo.

Gu said Shanghai authorities had divided the city into 7,624 areas that are still closed, a group of 2,460 now subject to "control" after a week of no new infections, and 7,565 "prevention areas" that will open after two weeks of no new infections.

Meanwhile, those living in "prevention areas", although able to move around their neighborhoods, must adhere to social distancing and can shut themselves off again if there is a new infection, he said.

Shanghai will make "dynamic" adjustments to the new system, Gu added, pledging greater efforts to minimize the impact of the restrictions on ordinary people in China's most populous city.

"We also hope that all residents and friends will continue to support and cooperate", he said.

Meanwhile, the decision to relax some areas in Shanghai drew criticism as a big risk at a time when Shanghai's caseload exceeds 25,000.

"I think the Shanghai government has a secret plan to infect the entire Chinese people", read one poster on the Weibo platform, using the name "The Star Break the Ice".

Others said authorities had no choice.

"I think this is the Shanghai Government's acknowledgment, they can't continue the lockdown while ensuring their citizens don't starve to death", said another Weibo user, posting under the name Ruan Yi.

However, China's strategy remains unchanged, with national health official Liang Wannian saying the "dynamic cleaning" policy is still Shanghai's "best choice".

It is misleading to view Omicron as the 'big flu', taking China's guard down would put its large elderly population at risk, especially as the virus mutates, said Liang, head of the working group of the National Health Commission on COVID-19.

"If we lay flat, the epidemic will only be a disaster for vulnerable people like this", the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper quoted Liang as saying on a visit to the eastern city.

Shanghai recorded the addition of 25,173 new asymptomatic infections on Sunday, up from 23,937 the previous day, although symptomatic cases fell to 914 from 1,006.