Shanghai said on Saturday (30) it had not detected new cases of Covid outside the quarantine areas, a milestone in the effort to contain the virus and that ended up paralyzing the city of 25 million people.
In the capital Beijing, the streets were quiet at the start of the five-day Labor Day holiday, one of the country’s main tourist holidays, on fears that authorities would impose new restrictions.
“You look at a city that used to be crowded and it’s empty. And you wonder how these people manage to survive,” said Li, 35, who works in the financial sector in Beijing, crying.
In Shanghai, China’s largest city, scenes of houses and buildings fenced off to prevent residents from leaving have made headlines as many countries are learning to live with the virus.
China maintains a “zero Covid” policy to try to eradicate the disease, leading to a sense of frustration, especially in Shanghai, where many residents, confined for more than a month, have expressed rare opposition – at least publicly – to the strict protocols of the government.
If it works, the campaign will be a victory for Chinese leader Xi Jinping in a year in which he seeks to secure a third term. If there were no new cases outside the quarantined areas on Friday, there were 108 on Thursday. As for the deaths, there were 47 in Shanghai on Friday, and 52 the day before.
Authorities said Saturday there were 16,000 isolated areas in the city, with more than 4 million people prevented from leaving their homes. “Epidemic and preventive control is still in critical condition, and people need to strengthen care,” said Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the local health commission.
The effort to contain the highly transmissible Omicron variant has taken a heavy toll on the country’s economy, with logistics chains hampered by the restrictions. Shanghai officials, who say they are eager for factories to resume work, said more than 80% of the 666 prioritized companies had restarted production. A new list of 1,188 companies was also created.
Some observers say authorities have been less stringent with testing in recent days. The Beijing government, however, insists that residents must report their test results before going to public places or using public transport. In addition, parks and leisure places in the capital can only operate at half capacity during the holiday. Restaurant service, on the other hand, will be suspended between May 1 and May 4, an official with the local commerce department said.
The estimate is that 46 cities are under total or partial confinement, affecting 343 million people.
