As the Shanghai Lockdown enters its second phase, China has reopened a city

BEIJING – The city of Shanghai is set to reopen its eastern half and close its western half on Thursday, as authorities elsewhere say city-wide lockdowns in the province are hit hardest by China’s ongoing omikron-driven coronavirus outbreak.

Residents of the town of Jilin will be able to move freely from Friday for the first time in more than three weeks, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing a notice issued by the city. They must wear masks and stay one meter (three feet) away from the house. Public gatherings in parks and squares are prohibited.

The Kovid-19 has been brought under control in the town of Jilin but not in the rest of Jilin province, officials told a news conference, according to CCTV. The provincial capital Changchun has made some progress and is an auto manufacturing hub that has been locked down since March 11th.

China has been battling its largest COVID-19 outbreak since destroying the city of Wuhan and other parts of Hubei Province in early 2020. So far, most cases have occurred in Jilin Province, which borders China’s industrial northeast with North Korea. Small outbreaks have occurred across the country, including the financial capital Shanghai and China’s largest city with 26 million people.

Shanghai’s two-stage lockdown, which has been going on for eight days, has shaken world markets worried about the potential economic impact. China’s manufacturing activity fell to a five-month low in March, a monthly survey showed Thursday, as lockdowns and other restrictions forced factories to suspend production.

Half of Pudong in Shanghai, east of the Huangpu River, had to reopen at 5 a.m. Friday after a four-day lockdown, when residents were tested for coronavirus and disconnected if the results were positive. The lockdown on the west side of the river started at 3 am

About 16 million people will be tested in Puksi. During the four-day lockdown, residents are not allowed to leave their neighborhoods or housing compounds with groceries or food supplies in their complex.

China reported 8,559 new cases in the previous 24-hour period on Thursday, of which 6,720 had no symptoms. The proportion of asymptomatic cases has been higher than in previous cases, especially in Shanghai. About 100 of the new cases were recently imported from abroad.