Some residents of Shanghai stepped out of their homes for the first time in more than two weeks on Tuesday, as the city took tentative steps towards easing a COVID-19 lockdown amid mounting worries over the economic impact of the strict curbs.
With a quarter of the population now in some form of lockdown, China’s leadership is increasingly concerned about the long-term economic impact of its “zero-COVID” strategy, but it remains reluctant to risk larger waves of infection.
Shanghai said on Monday that more than 7,000 residential units had been classified as lower-risk areas after reporting no new infections for 14 days, and its districts have since been announcing which specific compounds can be opened up.
But while some people were allowed out of their residences on Tuesday, there was still confusion about the extent to which those living in lower-risk zones were free to move, with many still awaiting permission from their residential committees.
One Shanghai resident said she briefly left home for a scooter ride on Tuesday morning after receiving permission from her compound, but she was notified later in the day that she would no longer be allowed to do so.
“You know how it all changes very fast… if you can go out you better do so quickly because you won’t know if it could change in the next hour,” said the resident, who didn’t want to be named.
Residents from lower-risk zones known as “prevention areas” are still subject to controls and will have to observe strict social distancing measures, city health official Wu Qianyu said at a press briefing.
“After a long period of lockdown, it is understandable that people want to go out and get some air, and they need to go shopping for food and medicine and go for medical treatment,” she said. “But if lots of people gather in a disorderly way, it will cause hidden dangers to our epidemic prevention work.”
On Monday, Shanghai’s total new asymptomatic cases fell 11% from a day earlier to 22,348, with confirmed symptomatic cases rising to 994 from 914.
But experts said it was still too early to say whether the city was getting to grips with the outbreak – China’s biggest since the coronavirus was first discovered in late 2019.
Zhang Boli, a medical expert and government adviser, said the multiple points of transmission made the current flare-ups different from previous ones.
“It might take more time than previously – it isn’t easy to make predictions,” he told the Health Times newspaper.
Amid concerns about the tough curbs, the U.S. State Department has ordered its non-emergency government workers to leave its consulate in Shanghai.
DOWNWARD PRESSURES
With the economy under increasing strain, efforts are being made in Shanghai to reopen supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies, but non-essential businesses will remain suspended, said Liu Min, vice head of the city’s commercial commission.
Nomura estimates that as many as 45 cities in China are now implementing either full or partial lockdowns, making up 26.4% of the country’s population and 40.3% of its GDP.
The figure of 45 cities may even underestimate the full impact of China’s current “zero COVID” policies, with mobility disrupted elsewhere too, it added.
The economic impact has been mixed so far, according to a research report by Cinda Securities, a Chinese brokerage.
The outbreaks have added to inflationary pressures as residents hoard goods and transport restrictions erode supplies, but that has been partly offset by weaker demand as incomes decline. It said relief measures were needed urgently.
Premier Li Keqiang warned on Monday that China needed to be “highly vigilant” against further downward pressures on the economy and said the fight against COVID-19 needed to be “coordinated” with economic and social development.
Philadelphia will again require masks in indoor public settings such as restaurants, schools and businesses starting next week, the city said , responding to what appears to be a fresh wave of coronavirus transmissions.
The new rule, which is set to take effect on April 18, will make Philadelphia the first major city in the United States to reimpose such a mandate.
New infections in Philadelphia are rising quickly, up 50% from the start of April, prompting the city to step up prevention measures, city Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said at a news briefing. COVID hospitalizations, a lagging metric, remain stable, she said.
“This looks like we may be at the start of a new COVID wave, like Europe just saw,” Bettigole said.
U.S. infection trends have tended to follow Europe by a few weeks throughout the pandemic.
“At this level of transmission, we do not believe there’s any reason to panic or to avoid activities we enjoy,” she said. “Our city remains open.”
The reversal comes more than a month after the city of 1.5 million residents relaxed its indoor mask mandate on public spaces amid a decline in cases in March following the record Omicron surge in January.
Philadelphia is averaging more than 140 new daily cases, while fewer than 50 patients were hospitalized with the disease as of last count, Bettigole said.
Cases in Pennsylvania rose nearly 70% in the span of a week as of Sunday, placing it among the top 10 states where infections are spreading fastest, according to a Reuters tally.
New infections are up 10% in the United States as a whole over the past week, driven by the even more contagious BA.2 subvariant of Omicron. The Omicron cousin is now the dominant version of the virus in the United States and elsewhere.
U.S. hospitalizations for the week were down about 6%, according to Reuters.
Most U.S. states and localities have eased masking and vaccination requirements. Under new Centers of Disease Control and Prevention guidelines issued in late February, nearly all of the U.S. population currently live in counties where they do not need to wear masks indoors.
More than 986,000 lives have been lost in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020, according to a Reuters tally.
The recent uptick in cases has also disrupted schedules for several high-ranking public officials across the country.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, one of nearly 70 people who contracted the disease after attending the April 2, Gridiron Club dinner in Washington.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Joaquin Castor, who also attended the event, a highlight of the Washington social calendar, also tested positive.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday said she tested negative for COVID-19 for the first time since her spokesman revealed on Thursday that she had been infected.
