Will the people of Shanghai see the end of the drastic containment put in place by the authorities? The Chinese economic capital announced, Sunday, May 15, a reopening “progressive” businesses from Monday, when residents are becoming more and more exasperated after a second month of confinement.
Shanghai Vice Mayor Chen Tong announced a reopening “in stages” shops from Monday. However, the official did not specify whether he was talking about a gradual resumption of activity in the city, or whether he was conditioning the resumption on certain health criteria.
Even if the decline in the number of cases seems to be underway (with 1,369 new positive cases on Sunday against more than 25,000 at the end of last month), in China, any lifting of restrictions is generally conditional on the “zero contamination in society”, i.e. no new positive cases for three days outside quarantine centres. The Shanghai authorities are aiming for this goal in “mid-May”.
