Shanghai hopes for further relaxation

The city of Shanghai reported 18,902 newly registered Covid infections on Wednesday. This is slightly fewer than on Tuesday, when the figure was 19,829. It is a good fifth below the previous week’s numbers. But a complete end to the lockdown remains nowhere in sight, even as authorities begin to ease the lockdown in certain areas. Intra-city spread chains have been broken, said Wu Qianyu of the disease control agency. Meanwhile, 7.85 million people have been allowed to return to work, two million more than at the end of last week.