No respite to Shanghai residents from lockdown

There is no respite to Shanghai residents from the lockdown for at least five more days as the city government has further tightened restrictions on the movement of residents in some districts and warned its 25 million inhabitants that strict measures would continue until Covid-19 was eradicated, in every neighbourhood.

Amid reports of growing public resentment as the eastern metropolis city of 26 million reported 11 more deaths on Thursday, taking the official death toll in the current outbreak to 36. On Friday, the Chinese financial hub reported 15,698 new local asymptomatic coronavirus cases, down from 15,861 a day earlier. New symptomatic cases stood at 1,931, down from 2,634.

As Shanghai is all set to prolong the lockdown till Tuesday, the city officials announced a series of measures, including easing the movement of truck drivers to improve supplies as well as monetary support for business to



improve the metropolis' economy, which came to standstill in the last three weeks, sparking concerns of huge production losses.

According to local media reports, foreign businesses are struggling to bring workers back to factories after weeks of lockdowns in Shanghai. Nearly a month since Covid restrictions began in earnest in Shanghai, U.S. and European businesses say that less than half of their employees are able to return to work.

The local administration also announced six months of free rent for 80,000 small enterprises in government-owned buildings in the city as well as loans to the tune of USD 10 billion for business, a Chinese daily reported. Shanghai has started a new round of “nine major” actions, which included daily city-wide testing from Friday, minimising people’s movement and accelerating transfers of residents to quarantine centres.