Shanghai will try again to reopen in a few days after it has eliminated Covid-19 transmission among the population at large as an outbreak in China's largest city subsides, an official 𝔍said Friday.
The strict lockdown of the city — now i🐓n its seventh week but moved♐, lifted and reinforced at times to the frustration of residents — is part of the ruling Communist Party's “zero-Covid-19” goal that has exacted a mounting economic toll and that even the World Health Organization says may be unsustainable.
The goal in Shanghai is to achieve “elimination in society,” meaning any new cases would only be in people already in isolation, Vice Mayor Wu Qing said at a ꦦnews conference. That would allow for an “orderly opening, limited (population) flow, and differentiated management,” Wu said.
No exact date beyond the middle of ꦏthe month was given, nor did Wu say how the reopening would occur except that the city intends to gradually restore ind❀ustrial production, education and medical services.
Shanghai officials have made similar past assurances, only to see restrictions return even as cases wane i♉n the city of 25 million people.
Comp𝓀laints about food shortages and other hardshi⛄ps and videos posted online showing people in Shanghai and other areas arguing with police have been deleted by censors.
Amid a much smaller outbreak in Beijing, more daily testing has been ordered, classes have been suspended, people have been ordered♛ to work from home, restaurants are restricted to take-out service and many shops, tourist sites, banks and government offices closed.
Some residential communities are 🐻under lockdown and residents have been warned to avoid traveling between city districts.
Shanghai reported 2,096 new Covid-19 cases on Fri♐day, all but 227 of them in people not showing symptoms. Beijing reported 50 cases, in line with recent daily totals.
China's Foreign Ministry dismissed as “irresponsible” WHO's doubts expressed earlier this week about continuing the “zero-COVID" approach mandating strict lockdowns, mass testing and the compulsory removal ཧto crowded centralized quarantine centers of anyone who tests positive or is a close contact.
Experts have questions the policy's continued use given vaccines are widely availabl🍸🥃e, and it has affected growth in the world's second largest economy as well as global supply chains.
Yet it has become ever-more closely identified with China's president and Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, who is determined to maintain 𓆏tight social control and shore up his and the party's authority ahead of a key party congress later 👍this year.
Already highly limited rights to pr🔯ivacy, free speech and personal autonomy have been further restricted in the name of fighting the pandemic. China's borders have been largely closed for more than two years, and this week the government said it would tighten restrictions on outbound travel by Chinese citizens and increase scrutin🤪y over the issuance of passports.
At a meeting last꧒ week, the party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, the leadership said it was committed to “resolutely fighting any attempts 💖to distort, question or dismiss China's anti-Covid-19 policy.”
“In the face of mounting uncertainties due to Covid-19, one thing remains 𒈔certain — China will stick to its dynamic zero-Covid-19 policy that has proven pragmatic and effective," the official Xinhua News Agency said in an editorial Thursday.
China's outbreaks and the ensuing restrictions haveജ led to a number of events being canceled or postponed, most recently the Asian Games originally scheduled for September in the city of Hangzhou, 177 kilometers (110 miles) west of Shanghai.
