Coronavirus: Shanghai’s symptomatic cases fall to single digit as city resumes public transport and prepares to ease citywide lockdown
- New cases fell for the ninth straight day, plummeting by 45.1 per cent to 67 in the past 24 hours, according to data released on Monday
- Six infected people showed symptoms, compared with 29 a day earlier, while the death toll stayed zero for the third day
Shanghai will let more than 22 million residents living in low-risk areas freely leave their compounds and fully resume public transport on June 1, in an effort to revive the local economy as it drastically relaxes a two-month citywide lockdown.
The municipal government will also allow private cars on the roads from Wednesday, according to a statement published on Monday evening.
“We must do well in guarding against the coronavirus under a normal virus prevention mode,” Shanghai Communist Party boss Li Qiang said on Monday. “Normal life and running of smooth business have to be restored.”
The announcement marked an official end to the lockdown that started on April 1, which upended livelihoods, strained global supply chains and forced businesses as far away as Japan and Europe to suspend production. It also threatened to weigh on China’s economic growth, which has already weakened to the slowest pace in decades.
“It has been a long wait since the city’s 25 million residents were expecting an end to the lockdown,” said Zhang Yixiang, a restaurant owner in Pudong. “Now we hope that our businesses return to normal as soon as possible.”