Shanghai bustles again as life returns to normal(3)

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

Commerce returns

After putting up the shutters for two months, the Green Bazaar restaurant, which sells light meals at the Bund Finance Center, is ready to welcome more customers.

Wang Ningning, the eatery's manager, said most employees who returned to work were excited. "We've been waiting for so long," she added.

"On Wednesday, the number of customers coming to the restaurant to collect takeout orders was about half that recorded for an average day before the pandemic. Online sales orders exceeded our capacity, so we had to suspend taking them for a time. We're all confident that the market can recover."

Zhao Dan, CEO of the BFC shopping mall, said 200 of its stores, or 96 percent, resumed business on Wednesday, including supermarkets, catering and clothing outlets.

In addition, more than 2,000 employees at 110 enterprises, or 90 percent of the total number based in the mall's office buildings, have resumed work, Zhao said.

Wang Yu, who lives in Huangpu district, visited the mall with her daughter, who is a kindergarten pupil, to celebrate the city returning to normal.

"People are very friendly to each other on the streets today," Wang said.

Shanghai's victory over its worst outbreak of COVID-19 in two years was a result of joint efforts by residents. After the citywide lockdown was imposed on April 1, daily infection numbers peaked at 27,719 on April 13.

The daily total gradually fell last month, and the city finally achieved zero transmission in all 16 districts on May 17, except for quarantined and locked down populations.

This success came after numerous rounds of nucleic acid and antigen tests, with residents required to self-isolate at home, and most infected patients being treated at makeshift hospitals.

On Tuesday, the largest makeshift hospital, which provided 50,000 beds and was renovated from the National Exhibition and Convention Center, was closed.

Three makeshift hospitals providing a total of 20,000 beds have been retained in Shanghai to meet future epidemic prevention and control requirements. At the peak of the outbreak, there were 120 makeshift hospitals in the city, providing more than 300,000 beds.

Yin Xin, spokeswoman for the Shanghai government, said, "Our city is ushering in a brand-new start, which we have long looked forward to and dedicated a lot to achieve."