A police officer posted on a street in Shanghai during detention on April 20, 2022. HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
The city of Shanghai, which has been in total lockdown since the beginning of the month, has eased slightly restrictions that are penalizing supplies and weighing heavily on the Chinese economy despite a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths.
The 25 million residents of Shanghai, where more than 400,000 infections have been reported since early March, are generally subject to a strict curfew. However, some rules have been relaxed since last week, City Hall announced on Wednesday, April 20.
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More than 12 million people can technically leave their homes but must remain within the confines of their residence or neighborhood, the city said. In theory, residents of neighborhoods where no cases have been reported in the last fortnight are free to roam.
But many residents of such areas have complained on social media about being restricted from leaving their neighborhoods. Freedom of movement remains dependent on the goodwill of Communist Party volunteers, who often apply anti-Covid measures with great zeal.
Seven more deaths
Authorities remain cautious about the increase in the number of Covid-19-related deaths, particularly among the elderly who are more vulnerable and less vaccinated.
Shanghai on Wednesday reported seven more deaths in twenty-four hours, bringing the total number of deaths in the metropolis to seventeen. The seven deaths involve people suffering from diseases such as lung cancer or diabetes, and five of them were over the age of 70.
The city also reported more than 18,000 cases Wednesday, a number that remains low compared to the rest of the world but is still the highest for China since the first phase of the epidemic in early 2020. Unlike many countries choosing to coexist with the virus and lifting restrictions, China continues to pursue a zero-Covid strategy.
Residents of China’s economic capital seem increasingly angered on social networks by the difficulties in accessing food and the forced isolation of positive people in quarantine centers, comfort and hygiene at random.
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Multinational companies are worried about the impact on global supply chains of the confinement, which was only expected to last four days. Many companies have stopped production.
Authorities have started listing so-called strategic companies where production must continue.
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More than 600 companies have been selected to resume work in Shanghai soon. American electric car giant Tesla, which has a major manufacturing facility in the city, resumed operations on Tuesday after a 20-day suspension, according to local media. Work is also gradually resuming in the northeast of the country, the cradle of the auto industry, where tens of millions of Chinese have been locked up in recent weeks.