The Shanghai metropolis in western China is leaving this Wednesday (1st) a lockdown that lasted two months for the majority of its 25 million residents. Officials began to dismantle police fences and barriers around residential areas and office buildings, which have become part of the local urban landscape.

Restrictions will be lifted for approximately 22.5 million people – a population similar to the population of the state of Minas Gerais – who live in low-risk regions. Residents will be able to travel on public roads and go to work in person, but the mask is still mandatory. Dining in restaurants is still prohibited and shops can only operate at 75% of their normal capacity.

The mass testing policy, although loosened, remains: when using public transport, passengers must always have a negative Covid test taken within the last 72 hours. Those who have contracted the coronavirus, and those who have been in contact with them, will have to go into quarantine.

The exit from the self-isolation regime was reported in the second half of May, when the number of new daily infections decreased. Officials have even announced that Covid Zero — Beijing’s strategy to stop the spread of the virus, not live with it — has failed in Shanghai as no new symptomatic cases have been reported outside of quarantined areas.

This Monday (30) there were 35 cases of Covid in the metropolitan area – 13 in patients with symptoms and 22 in asymptomatic people. This is the lowest figure since March. At the height of the local spread of the virus, in April, more than 27,000 cases were reported daily, although the bulk of this number was in asymptomatic people.

The Chinese methodology, which differs from that adopted in most Western countries, was made possible by mass testing carried out in places where there are outbreaks of the disease. Even in the weeks when the highest rates were reported, symptomatic cases accounted for no more than 15% of total infections.

Deputy Mayor Zong Ming said the city is now entering the third phase of deflation — “a complete but gradual return to normalcy.” Yin Xin, a local government official, described the moment as “the day we’ve been dreaming of for a long time.” “Everyone sacrificed a lot,” he added.

Within weeks, Shanghai was responsible for nearly all of the Covid deaths reported in the Asian country. No deaths have been reported in the last four days, according to the National Health Commission, with the last one on Thursday (26).

The end of the lockdown was, of course, celebrated by residents of the Chinese financial hub, but there were also reports of dissatisfaction with the way the Beijing regime handled the pandemic. During the two months of strict quarantine, there were many criticisms that, breaking through the blocks on social networks, pointed to a lack of food and disorganization in isolation.

“The Shanghai administration must issue a public apology in order to win back the support of the population and repair the broken ties between the government and the people,” Qu Weiguo, a professor at Fudan University, wrote on the WeChat platform, the news agency reported. , Reuters.

Residents also report a lack of centralized communications. Blogger Zhang Pei, in an article that went viral on WeChat, said she didn’t know how to reply to friends from other countries who sent messages marking the end of the lockdown. She and her family, who live in Shanghai, remain imprisoned. “We feel like we live in a parallel world, we don’t know who has returned to work and where businesses have opened,” he said.

“Today is the 62nd day that I am in custody, in custody. Yesterday the district committee asked us to make [testes] antigen at 8 am; at 10 am we went to do [testes] nucleic acids, and at 17:00 new antigens. With the same goal as every day: to find the virus,” she said.

The Global Times, a newspaper associated with the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party, painted another scene of full celebration among residents. In the text, which collected stories from residents speaking of relief and happiness, he said the international media had used Shanghai to “slander China’s zero-Covid policy and minimize the country’s economic development.”

According to the publication, at least 200,000 people in the city remain incarcerated. The People’s Liberation Army of China, the name of the Chinese armed forces, sent to the city announced that they had completed their task and must now leave.

The deconfinement of Chinese finances comes just months before the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, decides whether to keep Xi Jinping at the head of the country or replace him after Beijing lifted re-election restrictions in 2018.

Time is of the essence, because the consequences of Shanghai’s lockdown – not only popular discontent, but also a drop in economic performance – have been seen by local analysts as political exhaustion that could prevent Xi from staying in power.