Shanghai's plan to end the prolonged citywide lockdown on June 1 appeared on the track, despite announcing Friday its first new cases of COVID-19 outside quarantined areas in five days, triggering stricter curbs and mass testing in one district.
The commercial hub of 25 million found three new cases in the same family in Qingpu district. All had taken three doses of vaccine and their infections were discovered during regular testing, authorities said.
The three had not left their district town over the past 14 days but had visited at least four places, including a supermarket, all of which were sealed off and were being disinfected, authorities said.
The area's more than 200,000 people had been re-tested and all results were negative.
"Our district will follow the precise prevention and control measures, do a good job in epidemic prevention and control and achieve dynamic clearing as soon as possible," Zhang Yan, deputy head of Qingpu district, told an online news conference.
Other officials said steps in the gradual re-opening of Shanghai were going ahead, with suburban parks due to open from Sunday. Other parks could open from June if they met certain conditions but leisure facilities in parks would remain closed.
A plan to reopen four metro lines from Sunday also remained on track, the city government said.
Shanghai has been allowing more people to leave their homes in recent days, with many residential compounds issuing a limited number of passes for brief walks or trips to the supermarket. Still, most people remained stuck indoors, relying on delivery apps for their shopping and government rations.
The almost complete shutdown of Shanghai and strict measures in other cities are the results of a national "zero-COVID" policy to end all outbreaks as soon as they occur, in contrast with the resumption of normal life in the rest of the world.
Beijing, home to 22 million people, reported 62 new COVID-19 infections on May 19, up from 55 a day earlier. China's capital has struggled to end an outbreak since late April despite significant curbs on movement, with many residents working from home and a range of shops and venues closed. But Beijing's daily caseload has remained in the dozens rather than exploding as Shanghai's outbreak did.
Shanghai reported Friday a broad economic decline in April, with many factories shut and workers and consumers stuck at home. The city's industrial output shrank 61.5% from last year, the biggest monthly decline since 2011. Retail sales dived 48.3%, significantly steeper than the 11.1% drop nationally, and property sales by floor area sank 88%, according to a Reuters calculation.
The European Chamber of Commerce in China warned this week that many companies and individuals were "seriously considering their China presence," even though this month, the COVID-19 situation in Shanghai and more broadly in China has been improving.
To keep the virus at bay, many cities have set up municipal border controls, conduct frequent mass testing and monitor and isolate new infections, including through building lockdowns.