Shanghai authorities have pledged to boost the local economy based on instructions from Premier Li Keqiang this week, while doubling down on the “dynamic zero” Covid-19 policy as the city prepares to end its two-month lockdown on June 1. New daily infections fell 35.6 per cent to 170 cases on Friday, the seventh consecutive day of decline, according to data released on Saturday. Cases showing symptoms also dipped 13.3 per cent to 39, the fourth day that the number held below 50, while not a single patient died. But one infection was discovered outside the precautionary zones in the southwestern district of Songjiang, highlighting the challenges in keeping the highly transmissible Omicron variant completely at bay. It was the first community infection, or new case outside quarantine areas, in three days. The last community infection was found in northern Shanghai’s Jiading district on Tuesday. Shanghai’s lockdown to end ‘as scripted’ amid falling cases, party boss says Three close contacts of the new community infection case also tested positive on Saturday, all of them family members living in the same place. None had left the Songjiang district in the past 14 days, according to officials speaking at a government press conference on Saturday. However, residents should not worry about the new cases in Songjiang district, as thorough virus control measures could prevent a resurgence, Sun Xiaodong, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said during the press conference. “One community infection will not stop Shanghai from easing the lockdown,” said Wang Feng, chairman of Shanghai-based financial service firm Ye Lang Capital. “Company owners and senior executives are hoping that they can resume business operations as soon as possible.” Shanghai is planning to lift the city’s lockdown on June 1 in a gradual and phased manner that aims to restore business activity, production and daily livelihoods to full normality by the end of the month. Speeding up the resumption of work and production to boost the economy will be the “core task” in the next stage, said Shanghai’s mayor Gong Zheng, who also pledged to follow instructions from a national video conference held by Premier Li Keqiang earlier this week, according to notes from a government meeting published on Friday. In a video meeting on Wednesday, involving more than 100,000 bureaucrats from the State Council to county-level authorities, Premier Li conceded that China’s economy is stalling at a dangerous rate and faces critical risks. He asked officials from across the country to exhaust all measures to stabilise the economy. Officials of all ranks must “take initiatives to care for and serve” businesses, listen to their voices and help relieve their worries and solve their problems, Shanghai’s city Commissar Li Qiang said during a meeting with officials, according to a government statement published on Friday night. The Fengxian district in southern Shanghai announced on Friday that it is removing a range of restrictions on movements, becoming the first district among the city’s 16 administrative regions to allow people to leave their residential compounds. Several thousand manufacturers and businesses have been given the green light to resume work under “closed loops”, subject to strict Covid-19 prevention measures and daily tests, while workers are required to sleep on site to avoid contact with outsiders. The city’s southwestern district of Jinshan, one of the 16 administrative regions, is currently the only district to have fully restored public transport and allow private cars on the roads. On Wednesday, the Premier did not signal a change to the zero-Covid policy that has locked down Shanghai – a commercial hub home to 25 million people, where stringent virus control measures have pushed small businesses to the brink of collapse, and strained global supply chains in everything from clothing and textiles to electronics and vehicles. Li, the Shanghai Commissar, also pledged to uphold the zero-Covid policy with “absolute resolve” on Friday.