Despite reports of more than 25,000 new COVID-19 infections, Shanghai’s financial centre began relaxing its lockdown in some parts on Monday, as authorities sought to get the city working again after more than two weeks.
Residents in China’s most populous city, and one of its wealthiest, have been putting pressure on officials as the curbs have stretched on, leaving some struggling to get adequate food and medicine.
On Monday morning, city officials announced that they were categorising residential units into three risk categories in order to allow residents in neighbourhoods with no positive cases to engage in ‘appropriate activity’ for a two-week period, with district officials promising to publish more information.
The industrial area of Jinshan on Shanghai’s southwestern outskirts and the central city of Jing’an, which posted the names of residential sites still in high- and medium-risk categories, were among the first districts to disclose listings.
While local media videos revealed that most inhabitants in districts targeted for relaxation were still locked in and waiting for their neighbourhood committees to notify them of future measures, they also showed some people pouring out of their houses and onto the streets.
‘It’s fantastic to be out finally, even if there’s nowhere to go,’ a local identified as Qin told Reuters.
Many who have been caged up for more than three weeks in the fight against China’s largest epidemic since the coronavirus was first discovered in central Wuhan in late 2019 will be relieved by the move.
Shanghai was divided into 7,624 sealed regions, according to city official Gu Honghui, with 2,460 being subject to ‘controls’ after a week of no new infections and 7,565 ‘prevention areas’ to be unlocked after two weeks without a positive case.
Those in ‘prevention areas’ who travel about their neighbourhoods must maintain social distance and may be closed off again if new diseases emerge, according to Gu.
Post Your Comments