“Zero-covid at community level” means centralized quarantine facilities or transitions under strict lockdown in the vicinity are no longer available – and a prerequisite for lifting those measures.
Zhao Dandan, deputy head of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, told a news conference on Tuesday that 16 districts in China’s financial center have now achieved that difference. But 860,000 people are still under severe lockdown, meaning they can’t leave their homes.
At a news conference Monday, Shanghai officials declared the outbreak “effectively under control” because it has stopped the spread of the Kovid community in 15 of the city’s 16 districts, with less than 1 million of its 25 million residents still under severe lockdown.
Officials say the city’s reopening work will come in three phases, aimed at restoring normal life and fully reopening the factories in June.
“From June 1 to mid-June and to the end of June, in order to control the risk of infection rebound, we will prevent epidemics and control a normal routine and fully restore normal production and life in the city,” said Deputy Mayor Jung Ming.
Supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies reopened Monday, Jung said, adding that they would follow hair salons and wholesale agricultural markets.
Train services from Shanghai also gradually resumed on Monday, followed by domestic flights. From May 22, bus and subway services will resume According to Zong, passengers will need a negative covid test to board public transport – taken within 48 hours.
Shanghai residents are disbelievers
The roadmap for reopening was viewed with suspicion by some Shanghai residents who have lost confidence in the local government.
When the local government announced a two-stage lockdown in late March, it said it would last only four days and promised daily supplies would be sufficient. But the days turned into weeks, and many struggled to secure access to food and other daily necessities.
“You can fool me, but please don’t do it too many times,” said a user of a Weibo platform, such as China’s Twitter, in a widely circulated comment.
On Chinese social media, some Shanghai residents say they are still not allowed to go out, despite not knowing about any recent events around them. Others have expressed outrage at state media reports, claiming that life in the city is becoming normal.
“Even though I’m not allowed to go out in Shanghai, I can feel the warmth from your fake news. Thanks People’s Daily!” One resident said in a social media post under a hashtag that loosely translated “the smell of cooking is returning to Shanghai”.
“Is that Shanghai in a parallel world?” Another user has been asked under the same hashtag.
The hashtag, which has been viewed 140 million times, seems to have caught the attention of China’s Internet censors; Only posts published from the official account under that hashtag will be seen by Tuesday afternoon.
Some Shanghai residents have even made sarcastic remarks on the official Weibo account of the “National Anti-Fraud Center”, an app launched by China’s Ministry of Public Security to fight phone scams.
“Please go behind the Shanghai government and let them shut up. They sleep with their eyes closed every day, enough is enough,” said a user from Shanghai.
Others kept their temper for the People’s Daily. “The People.cn is spreading rumors. The Shanghai described in their words is not the Shanghai where I live right now,” said one user.
