Chinese financial hub Shanghai rolls out plan to support more enterprises to resume work and production which will progress in two phases, a vice mayor said Thursday, as the epidemic situation gradually eases in the city after weeks of closed-off management to beat down COVID-19 infections.

In the first phase, until the end of May, enterprises will mainly adopt closed-loop or semi-closed-loop operation, and the main management methods include closed production operations, and point-based resumption of work, which means that a small number of employees at key posts could return to work in closed management for no more than a week and then return to their living community under the premise of complying with epidemic prevention regulations, Vice Mayor Zhang Wei told a media briefing on Thursday.

For employees working and living in COVID-zero districts or areas, they could adopt the bubble management – one-line closed-loop commuting via corporate shuttle from point to point.

For the second phase, which is scheduled to start from early June, the resumption of work and production will speed up in depth and scale to include more enterprises. Normal traffic between enterprises and communities in areas without epidemic risk will be opened up, said Zhang.

“Although the scope of enterprises that have resumed work and production is expanding gradually, the absolute number is still only a small part, thus the early resumption may not have a high degree of perception and a strong sense of gain for the majority of small, medium-sized and micro enterprises,” the vice major confessed, attributing to the high standard required for enterprises in taking the step amid the COVID-19 flare-ups.

“Enterprises generally have the characteristics of high personnel density. If effective epidemic prevention cannot be achieved, the coronavirus can easily flow in, spread or even spill over, and the hard-won situation of resumption of work and production can only be disrupted,” he noted.

Major enterprises in Shanghai have already resumed stable production earlier this month, as key industrial chains, such as automobiles, integrated circuits and biomedicine, continued to recover and ramp up production capacity. In general, nearly 50 percent of Shanghai’s 9,000 and above-scale industrial companies had resumed work, local data showed as of May 13.

Besides, the metropolis has been vigorously promoting the opening of business outlets and the return of personnel to ensure supply of essential goods.

Shanghai plans to fully restore the normal order of production and life across the city from June 1 to mid-late June, with standard epidemic prevention and control measures, while strictly preventing any resurgence of the epidemic, local officials announced on Monday when the city has cut off the community transmission of COVID-19 in 15 out of its 16 districts.

Shanghai registered 82 confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 637 local asymptomatic cases on Wednesday.

Global Times