Shanghai authorities will lift the city’s two-month-long lockdown from midnight on Wednesday.
Allowing private cars, including taxis, to go back on the roads and allow people to move freely in low-risk housing complexes.
Bus and rail transport will also resume basic operations from June 1, including a ferry that connects the city’s Huangpu River to isolated districts, Shanghai city government said in a statement on its official WeChat account.
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“The pandemic situation in our city has been effectively brought under control and the situation continues to improve,” it said in its statement. It said people would still have to wear masks, discouraged from gathering and encouraged to be vaccinated.
Shanghai imposed a city-wide lockdown on its 25 million residents on April 1 to combat the spread of COVID-19, taking drastic measures that led to overcrowded quarantine centres, difficulties accessing food and income. Issues such as damage caused widespread public anger.
It had eased some restrictions in recent weeks, but most public transport networks remained closed and people could only drive if they had prior permission.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra)