Following two months of frustration, despair and economic loss, Shanghai's draconian COVID-19 lockdown ended at midnight on Wednesday morning, prompting celebrations tempered with fear that an outbreak could return.
Most of Shanghai's 25 million residents can now freely leave home, return to work, use public transport and drive their cars - a moment that for many in China's largest and most cosmopolitan city felt like it would never arrive. FILE PHOTO
At midnight, small groups gathered in the city's former French Concession neighborhood whistled, shouted "ban lifted" and clinked glasses of champagne. Under streetlamps, barbers gave haircuts to residents who had grown shaggy under lockdown. On the WeChat social media platform, shops announced their reopening plans.
The lack of a roadmap to exit from an approach that is increasingly challenged by the highly contagious Omicron variant has rattled investors and frustrated businesses. "The mood tonight is a bit like high school days. On the eve of the school year I was full of expectations for the new semester but I feel a little uneasy in my heart," wrote one user of the Twitter-like Weibo.During two months, numerous residents of the country's most important financial and economic hub struggled to get enough food or medical care. Families were separated and hundreds of thousands were forced into centralized quarantine facilities.
Residents will have to test every 72 hours to take public transport and enter public venues, heralding what may become a "new normal" in many Chinese cities. Those testing positive, and their close contacts, face onerous quarantines.