Shanghai on Sunday (May 22) laid out the criteria it would use to categorise parts of the city as low-risk for Covid, the latest step authorities in China’s financial centre have taken as they look to end a bruising 2-month long lockdown. 

Starting in June, Shanghai will put areas of the city into high-, medium- or low-risk categories, Zhao Dandan, deputy head of Shanghai health commission, said at a briefing. Districts that have not reported positive cases or community infections for 14 days will be defined as low-risk, Zhao said. He did not, however, describe how restrictions on freedom of movement might be loosened in such areas.

Residents in high- and medium-risk areas will be restricted to their homes and be required to take a nucleic acid (PCR) test daily for 14 days, Zhao said.

Shanghai’s lockdown, which began in late March, has taken a heavy economic and social toll, sparking clashes between residents and police and disrupting production for companies from Tesla to Apple. It has even caused a global shortage of a chemical widely used for X-rays, radiography and CT scans.

In Beijing, meanwhile, authorities reported a jump in new local Covid cases and reiterated that residents in 5 districts, including the central business district Chaoyang and the technology hub Haidian, should work from home till May 28. 

The city government said on Sunday afternoon that 94 local Covid infections were reported in the capital over the previous 24 hours. The day before, the number reported was 63.

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Authorities in Beijing sent all residents of a large housing complex into quarantine after 26 cases of Covid were discovered in the compound, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Saturday. 

Four subway lines were restarted in Shanghai on Sunday as the government gradually restores public transportation. The vice-mayor has said the city aims to return to normal life and restore full production by mid-to-late June. 

Shanghai on Sunday reported 622 new local Covid cases for the full-day Saturday, lower than the 868 infections for Friday. Crucially, though, there were no cases recorded outside government quarantine, according to data from Shanghai health commission. 

Authorities had started to ease the lockdown last week after the city hit a milestone of 3 days of zero community transmission. 

China reported a total of 824 new local Covid cases on Sunday.  Bloomberg