Shanghai returns to life as COVID lockdown eases

Shanghai: Traffic, pedestrians and joggers reappeared on the streets as China’s Shanghai began returning to normalcy amid the easing of a strict two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has drawn unusual protests over its heavy-handed implementation. 

According to details, the metropolis of 25 million people was closed in sections from late March after becoming the epicentre of China's worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years. 

Chinese authorities have built at least 15,000 testing sites and trained thousands of workers to swab throats. 

During the lockdown, the city’s residents were required to do daily RAT tests as well as frequent nucleic acid tests for Covid-19 under strict pandemic prevention measures. 

However, hours before the official lockdown ended, many residents across the city held celebrations, including outdoor concerts in public squares and fireworks shows in suburban areas. 

Some people just shouted repeatedly into the night air: “The lockdown is over!”

Moreover, some traffic overpasses became clogged with cars as people celebrated their new-found freedom of movement by driving to the Bund and nearby Nanjing East Road—one of Shanghai’s most famous shopping strips. 

It is pertinent to mention here that the strict restrictions in Shanghai—China’s commercial capital and home of the world’s busiest port— dragged down country’s economic activity and disrupted global manufacturing and trade.