Shanghai to resume some production after 16-day lockdown, even as it reports more than 24,000 new cases on Sunday

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Major automobile, semiconductor and biomedicine companies are to submit detailed plans about guarding against the spread of Covid-19 for the local health authorities to review

City’s total number of infections has now topped 350,000 since the outbreak began on March 1

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Saturday’s statement is the first step taken by Shanghai to relax controls on manufacturers, most of which have idled facilities since the beginning of April. Photo: Reuters

Daniel Ren

Published: 3:50pm, 17 Apr 2022Updated: 6:09pm, 17 Apr 2022

Shanghai is on track to resume production at key manufacturing sites after a 16-day citywide lockdown, succumbing to pressure from foreign diplomats, business groups and multinational firms calling for an easing of anti-coronavirus control measures.

Major companies in the fields of automobiles, semiconductors and biomedicines are to submit detailed plans about guarding against the spread of Covid-19 for the local health authorities to review before they are given the go-ahead to resume operations in the so-called closed-loop conditions, the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology said on Saturday evening.

Saturday’s statement is the first step taken by mainland China’s commercial and financial capital to relax controls on manufacturers, most of which have idled facilities since the beginning of April.

“Shanghai’s anti-coronavirus control and prevention measures have dealt a huge blow to the automotive industry alone,” said David Zhang, a researcher at the North China University of Technology. “The lockdown brought nearly all the thousands of automotive supply-chain firms based in Shanghai to a standstill. This is a serious problem that needs to be tackled as soon as possible.”

The decision to ease the lockdown comes despite the continued spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of Covid-19. Shanghai added 24,820 new Covid-19 cases, 3,238 of them symptomatic, on Sunday. The city’s total number of infections has now topped 350,000 since the outbreak began on March 1.

Shanghai to resume some production after 16-day lockdown, even as it reports more than 24,000 new cases on Sunday

Major automobile, semiconductor and biomedicine companies are to submit detailed plans about guarding against the spread of Covid-19 for the local health authorities to review City’s total number of infections has now topped 350,000 since the outbreak began on March 1

Major automobile, semiconductor and biomedicine companies are to submit detailed plans about guarding against the spread of Covid-19 for the local health authorities to review

City’s total number of infections has now topped 350,000 since the outbreak began on March 1