A policewoman speaks with a woman on a blocked street in a neighbourhood under a Covid-19 lockdown in the Jing’ an district of Shanghai on June 2, 2022. AFPPIX: Locked in their homes as neighbours celebrate freedom, hundreds of thousands of Shanghai residents are finding the path out of lockdown more complicated than the victory trumpeted by Chinese state media.
But while many celebrated with boozy street parties and shopping sprees, swathes of the city remained dormant with multiple neighbourhoods returning to lockdown on Thursday over new infections. Authorities said more than half a million people were still under movement restrictions, which are swiftly reinstated whenever suspected or confirmed infections appear.
The official Xinhua news agency has begun memorialising the lockdown, announcing that it would soon release a documentary on the city’s travails, “The Great Battle to Defend Shanghai”.