Auto sales fell by almost half from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Retail sales fell by a worse-than-forecast 11% in April from a year earlier, government data show. The strict restrictions in Shanghai, the country’s commercial capital and home of the world’s busiest port, dragged down Chinese economic activity and disrupted global manufacturing and trade.
“There is still quite some uncertainty and a scare that if there is a positive case in the office building or in your compound, you might be locked down again,” said Schoen-Behanzin, who works in Shanghai. As a precaution, many companies plan to have only half their workforce on site at a time. The country’s borders also remain largely closed and the government has upped requirements for the issuance of passports and permission to travel abroad.Īt least half of foreign companies in Shanghai are waiting until next week to reopen while they put in place hygiene measures, said Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, a vice president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. The lockdown has prompted an exodus of Chinese and foreign residents, with crowds forming outside the city’s Hongqiao Railway Station, where only some train services have resumed.Įven while the rest of the world has opened up, China has stuck to a “zero-COVID” strategy that requires lockdowns, mass testing and isolation at centralized facilities for anyone who is infected or has been in contact with someone who has tested positive. Health authorities on Wednesday reported just 15 new COVID-19 cases in Shanghai, down from a record high of around 20,000 daily cases in April.Ī few malls and markets have reopened, and some residents have been given passes allowing them out for a few hours at a time. Schools will partially reopen on a voluntary basis, and shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores and drug stores will gradually reopen at no more than 75% of their total capacity.
“We thought there wouldn’t be too many people here, but we were surprised after coming over that a lot of people are here.
“Then we said, ‘Let’s go to the Bund to have fun,'” she said in the city’s historic riverside district. The restriction ended exactly at midnight, she said. Liu Ruilin, 18, said she wasn’t sure her building’s security guard would let her and others out on Tuesday night. I feel today how I feel during Chinese New Year - that kind of mood and joy,” said Wang Xiaowei, 34, who moved to Shanghai from the inland province of Guizhou just a week before the lockdown began. “With the lockdown lifting, I feel very happy. That measure didn’t deter people in Shanghai from gathering outside to eat and drink under the watch of police deployed to discourage large crowds from forming. Negative PCR tests for the coronavirus taken within the previous 48 to 72 hours also remain standard in Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere for permission to enter public venues. The government says all restrictions will be gradually lifted, but local neighborhood committees still wield considerable power to implement sometimes conflicting and arbitrary policies. Still, more than half a million people in the city of 25 million remain under lockdown or in designated control zones because virus cases are still being detected. In one such step, the Cabinet’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism issued a letter Tuesday laying out rules banning “non-standard, simple and rude indoor disinfection” by mostly untrained teams in Shanghai and elsewhere that have left homes damaged and led to reports of property theft.įull bus and subway service in Shanghai was being restored from Wednesday, with rail connections to the rest of China to follow. While defending President and Communist Party chief Xi Jinping’s hardline “zero-COVID” policy, the country’s leadership appears to be acknowledging the public backlash against measures seen as trampling already severely limited rights to privacy and participation in the workings of government. Shanghai’s Communist Party committee, the city’s most powerful political body, issued a letter online proclaiming the lockdown’s success and thanking citizens for their “support and contributions.” The move came amid a steady rollback in compulsory measures that have upended daily life for millions while severely disrupting the economy and global supply chains. SHANGHAI (AP) - Traffic, pedestrians and joggers reappeared on the streets of Shanghai on Wednesday as China’s largest city began returning to normalcy amid the easing of a strict two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has drawn unusual protests over its heavy-handed implementation.
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