Coronavirus: Shanghai to gradually reopen malls, supermarkets, restaurants and barber shops from Monday, as daily cases drop to their lowest level in 52 days
- Authorities have also doubled down on lockdowns, however, ordering standstill orders in specific districts as the clock ticks towards a May 20 ‘societal zero-Covid’ deadline
- On Saturday, China’s overall new cases and symptomatic cases were both down by more than 10 per cent from a day earlier
The decision came as daily new cases in the city dropped to 1,369, its lowest tally since Mar 24, data released on Sunday shows. Symptomatic cases decreased by 14.4 per cent to 166 from a day earlier, while three elderly patients with existing medical ailments died.
From Monday on, these businesses, as well as convenience stores, pharmacies and farmers’ markets will be able to allow a limited number of patrons in phases, deputy mayor Chen Tong said on Sunday.
Shanghai’s pandemic controls have come to “a critical stage of transition from emergency response to normalised prevention and control”, Chen said. “More commercial outlets will be opened, and the public will enjoy more and better commercial services as the pandemic situation continues to improve”.
For over a month, bricks-and-mortar stores have been allowed to run at limited capacity. As of Saturday, only 183 out of 1,625 chain supermarkets were able to accept patrons, and 1,010 could only deliver online orders, while the rest were closed, Gu Jun, director of Shanghai Commission of Commerce, said at Sunday’s press conference.
