Shanghai to ease lockdown in some areas despite record Covid infections

[SHANGHAI] China's financial centre of Shanghai will start easing lockdown in some areas from Monday (Apr 11), despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new Covid-19 infections, as the authorities strive to get the city moving again after more than two weeks.

Pressure has been mounting on the authorities in China's most populous city, and one of its wealthiest, from residents growing increasingly frustrated as curbs drag on, leaving some struggling to find enough food and medicine.

Shanghai is grouping residential units into three "risk categories" as a step towards allowing "appropriate activity" by those in neighbourhoods with no positive cases during a 2-week stretch, city official Gu Honghui said.

"Each district will announce the specific names of the first batch (of communities) divided into the three types, and three subsequent lists will be announced in a timely manner," he told a news briefing.

While it was not clear how many of the city's 25 million residents stand to have lockdowns immediately eased, the step promises some relief for many cooped up for more than 3 weeks in the battle against China's biggest outbreak since coronavirus was first found in central Wuhan in late 2019.

One video, widely shared online, showed occupants of a row of apartment blocks screaming and shouting from windows.

Gu said Shanghai was divided into 7,624 areas that are still sealed off, with a group of 2,460 now subject to "controls" after a week of no new infections, and 7,565 "prevention areas" to be opened up after 2 weeks without a positive case.

Those in "prevention areas" who move around their neighbourhoods must observe social distancing and could be sealed off again if new infections emerge, Gu added.

Some social media users criticised the easing move as a big risk at a time of a record new daily caseload, but others said Shanghai had no choice.

"I think this is the Shanghai government admitting it cannot continue locking down while ensuring that its citizens don't starve to death," said a Weibo user, posting under the name Ruan Yi.

China's zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19, prescribing central quarantine for anyone testing positive even in the absence of symptoms, is increasingly strained by the highly infectious, though less deadly, Omicron variant.

The policy has halted nearly all international travel, and is taking a growing economic toll as cities impose curbs, with southern Guangzhou and eastern Ningbo the latest to do so, even as other countries try to live with the disease.

REUTERS