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Restrictions gradually ease as Shanghai inches towards June 1 gradual reopening
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Beijing allows malls, libraries, museums, theaters and gyms reopen May 29
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Industries set to increase output after Premier Li’s warns
Shanghai has begun relaxing harsh COVID-19 restrictions as China’s financial hub is barely three days away from a gradual reopening on June 1 to restart economic activity, while businesses in parts of Beijing are to reopen today, May 29, as infections “are under control.”
On Saturday, state media reported that Shanghai had been gradually easing safety protocols over the last week as officials aimed to end a two-month lockdown on June 1 in the home of the world’s largest container port to return to normalcy.
In Beijing, new cases have trended lower for six days, with no fresh infections outside of quarantine areas reported on Friday. The outbreak that began on April 22 is “effectively under control”, a city government spokesman told a news conference.
As a result, shopping malls, libraries, museums, theatres and gyms will be allowed to reopen from today, May 29, with limits on numbers of people in eight of Beijing’s 16 districts that have seen no community cases for seven consecutive days.
Shanghai’s reopening is expected to further boost activity in its port, which was reported to be operating up to 95% of capacity as of May 27 as dockworkers and container trucks returned to the cargo terminals.
Shanghai port is expected to operate at full capacity after the lockdown as factories ramp up to catch up with orders from overseas customers that were delayed due to the lockdown.
Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said on Friday speeding up the resumption of work and production to boost the economy will be the “core task” in the next stage, as he pledged to follow instructions from a national video conference held by Premier Li Keqiang last Wednesday.
The Premier warned in the online meeting with 100,000 public officials across the country that the Chinese economy is at a “critical point” for determining its full-year trajectory and urged officials to “work hard” for growth in the second quarter and a drop in unemployment, state media reported.
“The difficulties, in some areas and to a certain degree, are even greater than the severe shock of the pandemic in 2020,” Li said.
On Friday, the Communist Party commissar in Shanghai, Li Qiang, said in a meeting with city executives that all officials must “take initiatives to care for and serve” businesses, listen to their voices and help relieve their worries and solve their problems.
More people ventured out of their homes as more businesses reopened and public transport returned to the streets, though most residents remained largely confined to their housing compounds, with shops mainly limited to deliveries.
Shanghai officials urged the city’s 25 million population to remain vigilant, even though most of them reside in the lowest-risk “prevention” category.
“Wear masks in public, no gathering and keep social distance,” Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a daily news conference on Saturday after videos of Friday night revellers, including foreigners, were shown on social media drinking and dancing in the streets before police came and ordered them home.
Shanghai has been unveiling post-lockdown plans since May 26, as its daily count of Omicron infections declined steadily below 500. On Saturday, the count dropped drastically to 170, from 334 on Friday, health officials said.
Shanghai’s port, which handles one-fifth of China’s shipping volumes, has been operating throughout, running at severely reduced capacity. Many shipments have either been canceled, postponed, or rerouted to other Chinese mega-ports such as Ningbo-Zhousan.
The city’s factories and businesses that have resumed operations remain in a closed-loop system, meaning staff have to live in their worksites to avoid infection.
US electric car maker Tesla is preparing for the resumption of factory activity, with reports saying the company it will isolate thousands of its workers in disused factories and a military camp as part of its plan to ramp up production when Shanghai reopens.
The staff will be used to create a second shift at Tesla’s Gigafactory south of Shanghai, which was shut down for weeks from late March due to the lockdown but resumed some production recently under the closed-loop system.
