By Brenda Goh
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – After two months of frustration, depression and economic losses, the draconian COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai ended on Wednesday morning, sparking moderate celebrations over fears an outbreak could return.
Most of Shanghai’s 25 million citizens can now freely leave their homes, return to work, use public transport and drive their cars, a time that, for many in China’s largest and most cosmopolitan city, will never happen.
At the very least, small teams piled up in the old part of the town’s French concession whistled, shouted “lifting the ban” and toasted with glasses of champagne.
Previously, the streets were crowded as citizens had a picnic on the lawn and young people rode bicycles on the roads without cars. Dancing retirees, a mid-night show nothing unusual in Chinese cities, strutted for the first time in months in outdoor squares and along the Huangpu River. River.
Shanghai Disneyland, which has yet to announce a reopening date, aired a soft display to “celebrate the lifting of the Shanghai blockade. “They used a Chinese word that also means “ban” that city officials avoided.
Under the lampposts, hairdressers cut the hair of citizens who had combed their hair during the lockdown. On social media platform WeChat, outlets announced their reopening plans.
“I walked the dog and the dog is excited, because it took a long time to get out,” said Melody Dong, who was eager to eat fondue and fried fish, foods that are difficult to prepare at home.
Shanghai’s ordeal has come to symbolize what critics say is the unsustainability of China’s adherence to a zero-COVID policy that aims to cut any chain of infection, at all costs, even as much of the world tries to return to general despite ongoing infections.
The lack of a roadmap to get out of a technique challenged by the highly contagious variant of omicron has rattled investors and frustrated companies.
COVID restrictions in Shanghai and many other Chinese cities have hit the world’s second-largest economy and tangled global supply chains, the number of cases has risen, and restrictions have eased since the depths of the April shutdowns.
China says its approach, a flagship policy of President Xi Jinping, is mandatory to save lives and prevent its fitness formula from being overwhelmed. A third term as leader is certain in the fall.
“The atmosphere tonight is a bit like the best school. On the eve of the start of the school year, I am full of expectations for the new semester, but I feel a little uncomfortable in my heart,” one Weibo user wrote, a Twitter. resolve.
A MARKED CITY
For two months, many citizens of the country’s highest financial and economic center struggled to get enough food or medical care. Families were separated and thousands of others were placed in centralized quarantine facilities.
In the factories and offices that remained open, adding those of Shanghai government officials, staff lived in “closed circuits,” liars in makeshift beds, and many of them can only now return home.
Restrictions have been lifted for approximately 22. 5 million people in low-risk areas. Residents should wear masks in public and avoid gatherings. Meals at the restaurant are still prohibited. Stores can operate at 75% capacity. Gyms will reopen later.
Residents will have to check in every 72 hours to take public shipments and enter public places, heralding what could be just a “new normal” in many Chinese cities. People who test positive and their close contacts face heavy quarantines.
During the lockdown, Shanghai citizens staged infrequent protests, banging pots and pans from their windows and avoiding censors to vent on tightly controlled Chinese social media. Frustrations stemmed from the lockdown itself, as well as from brutal, asymmetrical enforcement and unclear communication.
“The Shanghai government will have to present a public apology to gain the understanding of the other Shanghaians and fix the broken relations between the government and others,” said Qu Weiguo, a professor at Fudan University’s School of Foreign Affairs. Languages. on WeChat.
Tuesday, the city’s largest quarantine facility: a 50,000-bed segment of the National Exposition
(Reporting through Brenda Goh and the Shanghai office, written through Tony Munroe, editing through Angus MacSwan)