The possibility of circulating in the city, after weeks of confinement.
Shanghai has been experiencing a harsh form of confinement since April, with the banning of leaving home in a large part of the city and the isolation of positive cases.
This Sunday, however, has an air of timidly regained freedom: public transport has partially resumed, a sign of a gradual reopening after nearly two months of confinement in China's largest city to fight against the Covid-19 epidemic.
Four of the city's 20 metro lines restarted on Sunday, as did some road transport, forming a "core network covering all central urban areas", according to the authorities.
Read also“They erected walls against the elevators”: these French expatriates relieved to have left the hell of strict confinement in China
Freedom of movement is all relative: people who take public transport must present a negative Covid-19 test less than 48 hours old and have a "normal temperature", added the authorities.
Almost the only country to stick to it despite the arrival of Omicron, China is leading a strict “zero Covid” policy, consisting of isolating sources of contamination to stop the spread of the virus.
An approach increasingly criticized by specialists including the WHO.
The strategy is considered untenable, due to the very high transmissibility of Omicron.
Shanghai breathes, Beijing dives
With cases declining in Shanghai, authorities appear to be gradually easing restrictions, and some factories have resumed operations.
From May 31, Shanghai will adopt a classification system between "low", "medium" or "high" risk areas, depending on the number of cases found there, a city health official said on Sunday. Zhao Dandan.
People in “low risk” areas will be allowed out of their homes, and “medium” or “high” risk areas will be locked down for 14 days.
The central district of Jing'an was again under a bell on Sunday, and its residents will be subjected to three rounds of tests, according to an official statement.
Restrictions continue in other Chinese cities, including Beijing, which has banned dining out and forced millions of people to work from home.
As of Saturday, nearly 5,000 people living in Beijing's residential Nanxinyuan district had been relocated to quarantine hotels after 26 new infections were discovered in recent days, according to state media.
Fears now center on how Beijing will stem the outbreak, and whether it intends to adopt an approach similar to that in Shanghai, where the lockdown has deprived many people of adequate access to medical care and food.
