SHANGHAI – Shanghai aims to stop the spread of COVID-19 outside quarantine areas by Wednesday, said two people familiar with the issue, which will allow the city to further ease its blockade and begin to return to normal life. public frustration is growing.
The goal will require officials to speed up testing of COVID-19 and the transfer of positive cases to quarantine centers, according to a speech by a local Communist Party official on Saturday, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
The cessation of broadcasting at the community level was a turning point for other blocking Chinese cities, such as the city of Shenzhen, which reopened public transport last month and allowed businesses to return to work shortly after achieving that goal.
Shanghai has become the epicenter of China’s largest outbreak since the virus was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019, and has registered more than 320,000 COVID-19 infections since early March, when its jump began. .
Disappointed Shanghai residents turned to social media to vent their anger at local authorities over food shortages, lost income, separated families and poor conditions in central quarantine centers. Tensions sometimes erupted in public protests or clashes with police.
China’s economy and global supply chains are also feeling oppressed by closed factories and transport difficulties in many parts of China affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
Shanghai has already taken steps to ease restrictions. State television reported on Sunday that some supermarkets have reopened to customers, although many residents have expressed distrust of social media posts. A Shanghai-backed social media account says it is in a suburb.
TURNOVER POINT
Shanghai’s new goal of “zero COVID at the community level” by April 20 was announced in recent days by the city’s Communist Party cadres and organizations as schools, according to sources who declined to be named because the information was not made public.
China’s definition of zero COVID status at the community level means that no new cases are emerging outside quarantine areas.
A speech in the city’s Baoshan district secretary on Saturday described it as an order that came when the city’s situation reached a “critical moment” with growing public unrest and pressure on food supplies.
“The working group of the State Council, the municipal party committee and the municipal government demanded that the turning point of the epidemic appear on the 17th and that the zero state of COVID be reached on the 20th,” Chen Jie said in a speech.
The Shanghai government and the State Council of China did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Baoshan District Government could not be reached by phone outside of business hours on Sunday.
“This is a military order, there is no room for bargaining, we can only grit our teeth and fight for victory. It can also be said that this is a total attack, the last battle to reverse the trend of the epidemic, “said the speech.
A Shanghai resident told Reuters that her neighborhood committee sent a notice Sunday to residents that more workers and buses had been mobilized to speed up the transfer of positive cases in their compound to quarantine centers.
Images and videos circulated on Chinese social media on Saturday night showed a number of buses lined up to take long lines of people consumers said had tested positive for COVID-19 outside a city in Shanghai’s eastern Pudong district. Reuters failed to verify the authenticity of the publications.
Of the 23,643 new local infections reported by Shanghai on Saturday, 722 were found outside quarantine areas, according to Wu Jingli, director of the Shanghai Health Commission. He told a news conference on Sunday that the figure had fallen over the past two days.
OPENING A BUSINESS
China’s “dynamic clean-up” approach to controlling COVID-19 requires the authorities to centrally quarantine all cases and isolate their close contacts.
Beijing authorities intervened in Shanghai in early April after the financial center failed to isolate COVID-19, despite locking the city in stages. Chinese President Xi Jinping has insisted that China should not ease coronavirus measures and adhere to an elimination approach.
Shanghai began locking areas east of the Huangpu River on March 28 and extended the blockade throughout the city on April 1. Although it eased traffic restrictions for some residents last week, most businesses remain closed and public transport has been suspended.
Business leaders are increasingly outspoken about the consequences of blocking China’s economy, with carmakers warning that they could be forced to shut down production if their suppliers in Shanghai and neighboring areas can’t resume operations soon.
On Friday, China’s industrial regulator said it had identified 666 companies in Shanghai’s semiconductor, automotive and medical sectors as priority companies that need to resume operations.
Late Saturday, Shanghai authorities provided guidance on what measures companies should take to restart production in the city, such as stocking up on medical supplies and presenting COVID-19 prevention plans for their factories.
Reuters reports that Tesla is preparing to reopen its plant in Shanghai on April 18.
SAIC Motor Corp, the Chinese partner of Volkswagen and General Motors, said it was preparing to resume production and would begin conducting “stress tests” on Monday.
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