Shopping centers, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and other commercial outlets will be gradually resuming offline operations in an orderly manner.
(File photo showing a street in Shanghai.)
Shanghai, which is still in lockdown, will soon allow the resumption of local businesses on a wider scale, after some key manufacturing companies, including Tesla and SAIC, started to resume production by entering a whitelist.
Under the premise of strictly implementing all Covid prevention and control measures, Shanghai will move forward with the resumption of business operations in phases starting May 16, local officials said today at a press briefing.
The resumption plan includes:
- Shopping centers, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies and other commercial outlets will gradually resume offline operations in an orderly manner, but they will need to delineate entry and exit lanes and limit the flow of people.
- Farmers' markets will gradually resume in an orderly manner. Wholesale markets will need to carry out contactless transactions, retail business will continue to be suspended, and the number of people present will need to be controlled at a reasonable level.
- Catering and hairdressing services will resume gradually and in an orderly manner, with the former needing to be carried out in the form of take-out and the latter needing to have a limit on the number of customers.
Previously commercial activities in Shanghai have been gradually resuming. To date, the city's resumed operations have increased from a low of less than 1,400 commercial outlets to 10,625, with daily delivery orders reaching 5 million, according to the press briefing.
It's worth noting, however, that all of Shanghai's subways have been suspended since May 15, with a resumption date yet to be determined, even though the vast majority of lines had previously ceased operations.
Shanghai went into a phased lockdown on March 28, and the measure, which was scheduled to last a week, has been extended to this day.
On April 16, three weeks after the city went into lockdown, Shanghai issued guidelines to help companies in the city return to work under Covid's controls and created a whitelist of companies that were allowed to return to work gradually.
According to local media reports, production at Tesla's Shanghai plant officially resumed on April 19, with 8,000 employees returning to work that day.
Shanghai's latest move comes as the city's new Covid cases dropped to just over 1,000.
China added 226 confirmed Covid cases and 1,492 asymptomatic infections on Saturday, including 166 confirmed cases and 1,203 asymptomatic infections in Shanghai.
Logistics in the severely disrupted auto supply chain are also expected to begin to recover as new cases continue to decline and more businesses resume operations.
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