BEIJING
\nChina\u2019s capital Beijing was busier on Monday as two districts allowed workers to return to their offices, while Shanghai inched closer towards officially lifting a two-month lockdown as Covid-19 cases dipped across China.
\nDespite the rest of the world learning to live with the virus, China has stuck to a \u201czero Covid\u201d elimination policy \u2013 featuring recurring lockdowns, border closures and mass testing \u2013 that has battered the world\u2019s second-largest economy and thrown a wrench in international supply chains and trade, Al Jazeera reported.
\nIn a respite, Beijing\u2019s Fangshan and Shunyi districts on Monday lifted work-from-home rules and resumed most public transport. The eased restrictions came after libraries, museums, theatres and gyms were on Sunday allowed to reopen to limited numbers of people in areas with no community cases during the previous seven days.
\nShanghai, the country\u2019s commercial capital and largest city, is due to officially lift a draconian two-month lockdown from Wednesday, although residents have expressed confusion and skepticism about how far the reopening will go.
\nBusinesses have been told they can resume operations, but most residents have not been told when they can leave their housing compounds, much of public transport remains suspended, and no private cars are allowed on the roads without prior approval.
\n\u201cA lot of people are quite skeptical,\u201d Cameron Wilson, a football writer living in Shanghai, told Al Jazeera. \u201cThey\u2019ve had their fingers burned because they were talking about opening up like 6 weeks go and here we are. So personally, I am in \u2018believe it when I see it\u2019 mode.\u201d
\nWilson said the authorities are desperate to portray the city as going back to normal despite the heightened level of control over everyday life.
\n\u201cOften the Chinese media is just full of absolute nonsense,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThey have been throughout this whole thing but they\u2019ll be tripping over themselves to say that everything is normal when it clearly isn\u2019t at all, and even if the city opens up, even if everyone is free to come and go as they please from their compounds, life is not going to be normal here for months if not years.\u201d
\nChina\u2019s retail sales and industrial production in April plummeted to their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. Beijing is aiming for about 5.5 percent growth in 2022, a goal that economists widely see as unrealistic given the lack of any timetable for permanently moving past draconian restrictions such as lockdowns.
\nChinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly ruled out deviating from the \u201czero COVID\u201d strategy, insisting authorities \u201cput people and life at the forefront.\u201d
\nMainland China has reported fewer than 5,230 Covid-19 deaths, a toll that health experts believe is widely understated given that the country has reported more than 2.5 million cases. Shanghai officials reported fewer than 100 new COVID infections for May 29, while Beijing recorded 12. China reported 184 new cases nationwide, down from 293.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING China\u2019s capital Beijing was busier on Monday as two districts allowed workers to return to their offices, while Shanghai inched closer towards officially lifting a two-month lockdown as Covid-19 cases dipped across China. Despite the rest of the world learning to live with the virus, China has stuck to a \u201czero Covid\u201d elimination policy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-263603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n