INTERNATIONAL: Shanghai residents expressed their growing sense of anticipation as authorities on Tuesday 31st May began dismantling fences around housing compounds and ripping police tape off public squares and buildings, to the relief of the city's 25 million residents, before a painful two-month lockdown is lifted at midnight.
Shanghai on Tuesday announced the plan to fully restore social production and life order in an orderly manner by June as the financial hub of China has basically brought under control the latest COVID-19 resurgence that broke out in early March.
The daily increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Shanghai has slipped to two-digit numbers, with 29 new cases reported on Monday, said Zong.
More residents in Shanghai - a mega-city of 25 million people - are now living in areas with eased restrictions, as the impact of COVID-19 in the megacity is waning.
"Up to now, the population under closed-off management has dropped to less than 200,000, and that in the prevention areas has increased to more than 22 million. The epidemic has been effectively brought under control and the anti-epidemic situation has continued to improve," said Zong.
"Shanghai plans to fully restore social production and life order from June 1. Before that, we have already carried out relevant stress tests in three districts of Fengxian, Jinshan and Chongming," she said.
Following two months of frustration, despair and economic loss, Shanghai's residents were seen on Wednesday 1st June buying groceries, picking out fruits and engaging in chitchats.
Fences come down as Shanghai residents anticipate the end of lockdown at midnight
Most of Shanghai's 25 million residents can now freely leave home, return to work, use public transport and drive their cars - a moment that for many in China's largest and most cosmopolitan city felt like it would never arrive.
On Monday evening, some of the people allowed out of their compounds for brief walks strolled along commercial streets lined with malls and shopped for groceries from local markets, as a sense of anticipation for the long-awaited resumption grew among residents.
Holding bags of vegetables, an elderly local who only gave her surname as Wang, told Reuters she had not stepped out of her home for two months.
"Finally at ease. I stayed at home all day and never went out, I felt sloppy," she said.
Shanghai's ordeal has come to symbolise what critics say is the unsustainability of China's adherence to a zero-COVID policy that aims to cut off every infection chain, at any cost, even as much of the world tries to return to normal despite ongoing infections.
"Today is my first day out. I feel like I have finally regained my former freedom," said Melody Dong, one of those allowed out of their compounds for brief strolls, while walking her dog for the first time since the lockdown began.
Many business owners were seen tidying and cleaning their shops, in preparation for businesses to resume on Wednesday (June 1). Workers installed colourful "I love Shanghai" banners at a commercial district outside large shopping malls as people looked on.
Yet, not everyone shared the same excitement despite the buzz in the city ahead of the reopening.
"To be honest, I don't feel anything right now, because there is nothing available so I can only take a walk on the street. I don't feel any particular sense of freedom either," 22-year-old Li Yi'an said.
The prolonged isolation has fueled public anger and rare protests inside Shanghai and battered the city's manufacturing and export-heavy economy, disrupting supply chains in China and around the world, and slowing international trade.
