As the clock struck midnight on Tuesday, May 31, residents of the Chinese city of Shanghai finally found themselves gathered in the streets, singing, toasting and watching fireworks. Others were at the window watching the party and clapping. The day would dawn without many of the squares and urbanizations being blocked, with the means of transport circulating again and with people running, cycling, going to the offices.

“We were confined too many days. We need to celebrate. Not just me, all the people of Shanghai,” one resident told the BBC. “We are free. I am so happy. I want to work. I want to work tomorrow,” said another.

The hashtag #ShanghaiIsBack (Shanghai is back) was created on the Weibo social network, which has already been used 330 million times. “It’s the first time in two months that Shanghai has traffic,” wrote a user of the social network, in the caption of a video with cars on public roads.

Shanghai to ease strict lockdown measures on Wednesday

Two months after another confinement was decreed, which involved the blockade of the Chinese economic capital, the beginning of June was marked by the relaxation of restrictions to combat Covid-19 cases. For many it meant a severe confinement that lasted 76 days.

“This is the day we have long dreamed of,” Tin Xin, a Shanghai government spokesman, told reporters. “Everyone has sacrificed a lot. This day was hard to win and we have to cherish and protect it, and welcome it to a Shanghai that is familiar to us and that we miss.”

The Shanghai Rules

But the relief of the measures does not mean a return to a situation of normality. It is only partial: according to China’s “zero covid” policy, only residents of areas considered low risk (with no registered cases) can go out – there are at least 640,000 inhabitants of the Chinese economic zone. capital who remain confined to their homes (190,000 in confined areas and 450,000 in controlled areas, close to places with infections).

And even those who can move follow strict rules. Only Negative PCR tests, carried out within the previous 72 hours, allow entry to banks or public transport. Supermarkets, shopping centers and tourist sites have resumed their activity, but with only 75% of their capacity. Museums, bars, gyms and cinemas remain closed. Restaurants cannot receive customers either, maintaining only the home delivery service. Those who want to travel out of the city continue to face difficulties on the way back, with a mandatory quarantine period of seven to 14 days. Infected people and close contacts are in quarantine, including the area of ​​​​residence potentially locked down. Face-to-face teaching was not resumed.

Despite the limitations, there are inhabitants who are surprised by everything that, at this point, is already allowed. “I think most people didn’t think she [a cidade] it would open as it did,” one resident told the Washington Post. “There is a climate of hope.”

Initially, the Shanghai confinement would last a maximum of four days, according to information provided by the authorities at the time, in which there were 20,000 daily infections, with only 15 this Wednesday, June 1, from April to June, with written complaints. on social media regarding food shortages and the refusal to treat patients who do not have COVID-19.

The inhabitants are happy, but some show signs of resentment. “I’m happy, but I feel strange and bittersweet, after so many weeks locked up at home,” Ming Ge, 30, an employee of a multinational, tells the Spanish newspaper El País. “It’s like when we have a partner with whom everything has been going well for two years, but who suddenly changes radically and, in recent months, insults and mistreats us. She then apologizes and asks us to forget what happened, assuring him that she wants everything to go back to normal.”