Shanghai declares zero-Covid milestone but residents cast doubt on reopening

Shanghai officials on Tuesday said they had achieved "zero-Covid at the community level" in what appeared to be a turning point in a heavy-handed and costly campaign to tame an Omicron outbreak -- but many residents remain skeptical the city will reopen anytime soon. "Zero-Covid at the community level" means infections are no longer found outside centralized quarantine facilities or neighborhoods under the strictest lockdowns -- and is a prerequisite for those measures to be lifted.

Zhao Dandan, deputy head of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said at a news conference Tuesday that all 16 districts of the Chinese financial hub had now achieved that distinction. But 860,000 people remain under the strictest lockdown level, meaning they cannot leave their homes.

Since China's leader Xi Jinping vowed to endure with his zero-Covid policy on May 5, Shanghai authorities have taken increasingly hardline measures, canceling food deliveries in some neighborhoods, forcing residents who tested negative for Covid into government quarantine and disinfecting their homes without consent.

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