Relief And Disbelief As Shanghai To Start Lifting Covid Lockdown
NDTV
On Monday evening, some of the people allowed out of their compounds for brief walks took advantage of suspended traffic to congregate for a beer and icecream on deserted streets, but there was a sense of wariness and anxiety among residents.
Shanghai authorities on Tuesday began dismantling fences around housing compounds and ripping police tape off public squares and buildings, to the relief of the city's 25 million residents, before a painful two-month lockdown is lifted at midnight.
On Monday evening, some of the people allowed out of their compounds for brief walks took advantage of suspended traffic to congregate for a beer and icecream on deserted streets, but there was a sense of wariness and anxiety among residents.
Most will be stuck indoors again until midnight, as they have been for the past two months under a ruthlessly enforced lockdown that has caused income losses, stress and despair to millions struggling to access food or get emergency healthcare.
The prolonged isolation has fuelled public anger and rare protests inside Shanghai and battered the city's manufacturing and export-heavy economy, disrupting supply chains in China and around the world, and slowing international trade.
