Shanghai authorities today lifted most of the covid-19 restrictions they had imposed two months ago on the city's 25 million residents, taking another step towards a complete lifting of the lockdown that had caused Chinese outrage and problems in the economy.
Many measures had already been relaxed in recent weeks, as the number of new cases of covid-19 significantly decreased. But Shanghai residents were not allowed out of their homes for more than a few hours a day and provided they stayed in complexes where no cases had been recorded.
This morning, residents of the city were back on their way to work, while some shops were preparing to reopen. The metro and public transport were back in operation.
«This is the moment we have been waiting for for a long time,» the Shanghai mayor's office announced with joy on social media.
However, authorities have warned that a return to normalcy will not come just yet: shopping malls, supermarkets, pharmacies and beauty salons can operate at 75% of their capacity. Gyms and cinemas will remain closed, while schools will open on a case-by-case basis.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the large yellow bars that had been preventing residents from leaving their homes for two months were removed.
The lockdown in China's largest city has caused shock and outrage among its residents. In the face of a large increase in covid-19 cases in March, local authorities resisted imposing a lockdown. But in early April they revised their stance and imposed severe restrictions on all Shanghai residents.
Many of them expressed outrage at the problems they faced in accessing food or health services that were not related to the pandemic.
The lockdown in Shanghai was the second largest imposed in China since the beginning of the pandemic. The 2020 lockdown in Wuhan, the city where a case of the new coronavirus was first detected and the first to be quarantined, lasted 76 days.
Moreover, the severe restrictive measures imposed have hit the economy, reduced production and consumption and significantly affected supply chains.
