Covid-19: in Shanghai, return to a not so normal life after two months of confinement

China’s largest city, Shanghai, lifted its anti-Covid restrictions on June 1 after two months of one of the most drastic lockdowns in the world. But on the spot, the situation remains fragile, as evidenced by several French expatriates. PCR tests every two days, reconfiguration of entire neighborhoods behind grids… the metropolis is far from having turned the page. Festive videos, skyscrapers lit up with a thousand lights and the return of traffic to the streets of the city. Shanghai has lifted the lockdown in most of its neighborhoods since June 1. With the lifting of a crippling 2-month lockdown, the streets of Shanghai looked (and sounded) like this. Video shows traffic and people along the Bund which has been all but deserted for weeks. #China https://t.co/nV1HWpCM9u— Janis Mackey Frayer (@janisfrayer) June 1, 2022 But the euphoria of the early days gave way to the frustration of having to queue for hours to get tested for Covid -19 on one of 15,000 screening sites set up by the authorities. Because the threat of the virus is still there, as is that of the restrictions. Residents are hastily reconfigured, forced to lock themselves up after the discovery of new contaminations. Under the zero Covid national health strategy, positive cases are still placed in quarantine. Prevented from leaving their residence in central Shanghai, several dozen residents even protested on Monday, June 7, against officials dressed in full suits, by demonstrating behind the fence that surrounds their buildings. For France 24, several French people, contacted for the first time by our editorial staff in April, agreed to tell their daily life barely out of confinement. Géraldine, 40, community manager I wouldn’t say that life in Shanghai has returned to normal. We are on probation. I live in the historic center and more and more neighborhoods around ours are being reconfigured. I’m scared like never before. I remain on the alert because we must leave the country in seven days if all goes well, my husband, my 4 year old daughter and me. It was planned for a long time and that’s what helped me hold on during the two months of confinement. In my district, there was a positive case and the neighborhood committee [autorité locale] asked to have all the buildings in our residence of several hundred inhabitants tested. We were taken down at midnight to be tested in the middle of the night by these famous volunteers with their head-to-toe protective gear. If ever a positive case of Covid-19 is detected, we are locked up immediately. I can see while walking around that some apartment buildings in the neighborhood are still confined, there are many barriers around our house to block access to entire neighborhoods, police in the streets and PCR test kiosks. You have to get tested every 48 hours to access shops or even to take a taxi. The atmosphere is not festive. I’m a bit carefree and so happy that we’ve been released that I’d like to take advantage of the last moments in Shanghai before leaving the country. After two months locked up, I have spent very little time in the apartment since the first day of deconfinement [le 1er juin]. I see a lot of friends, I picnic, I go for walks. Shops and businesses have reopened to boost the economy, but unfortunately most restaurants have remained closed and few people frequent them for fear of testing positive and having to self-isolate again. I do not restrict my movements but I keep my mask, I disinfect my hands carefully and I keep the distance. We will have to reconfine ourselves a few days before departure, avoid closed places so as not to have any unpleasant surprises with the QR code which turns red. Here, we are connected to a mandatory application, which follows us in real time, it’s a bit like our pass for everything. But we are also monitored. And the authorities can find us easily if we have met a positive person in a shopping center or another public place, even if we do not know them. And then the fear of going to a quarantine center is still there. This story of isolation camps, it continues. I’m happy to leave because Shanghai, the city I loved, has become sad. It is no longer possible to live like this and life will not go back to the way it was. The first thing I’ll do when I get back to France is take off my mask. I forgot how it felt. And to clump together in a restaurant. Élodie, 41, director of a French paint SME I hadn’t set foot on our manufacturing site for two months. It is a relief. This morning, I saw the workers who have been sleeping there since the end of March. My teams were almost all there. Some are still sleeping at the factory, because they live in a province neighboring Shanghai and which is not yet deconfined. If they return home, they must complete seven days of quarantine in a centre, at their own expense, where they sleep in boxes without windows. At the factory, beds have been set up for them, they also have a cook who prepares meals for them. I don’t know how our clients will react and I hope they won’t decide to relocate at some point. We cannot continue to do “on” / “off” while confining, we will have to learn to live differently. It’s long and we’re not talking about deconfinement per se. Today’s life is different. To go to work, I must present a negative PCR test less than 72 hours old. We have the results more than ten hours late, given the millions of people who test themselves in the city, so we are forced to get tested every other day in fact. From tomorrow we have decided to pay a company to come and do the tests at the factory in order to avoid our employees having to queue in the street. All over town there are stalls and people waiting for hours. The people carrying out the tests do not leave their cabin, holes have been provided to pass their arms out of the kiosk and carry out the tests with plastic gloves. I’m never calm when I take the test. So far, I have managed to avoid Covid-19 and quarantine centers. But the stress is still there. This deconfinement is quite particular. Every time I enter a mall, I have to scan my QR code and I’m traced, so I avoid going there. Outside, not everything has resumed as before, the schools are still closed and many people have remained working from home. But on the Shanghai Bund [les berges aménagées de la rivière Huangpu], there are a lot of people, people are picnicking, riding bikes. I hear waves of noise, laughter, it’s life that resumes. They take advantage before the rainy season which will not be long. It feels good to see friends again after spending two months, alone, between four walls, even if I remained positive and busy with the challenges at work. Thibaut, 29, computer scientist I managed to return to France on the night of May 27 to 28. We were fifty French in an Airbus and just a Chinese who managed to obtain a rare exit visa. My Chinese residence permit having expired, I almost didn’t leave. I had not been able to have it renewed during confinement because the administrative services were closed. I must have bribed a visa officer within days of my departure. I paid 2,500 euros. In addition to my return ticket at 4,000 euros, it is expensive. But I couldn’t see myself staying in these conditions in Shanghai. When I left, I had no visibility on the end of the confinement which finally took place the following days. I needed this breath of fresh air. The experience was still tough. In April, when I switched to QR code red [positif au test du Covid-19], half of the inhabitants of my building demanded my immediate transfer to a quarantine centre. I managed to escape but the neighborhood committee placed a sensor on my door to detect any opening. And the following days, I received a message to give me the authorized time slot to take out my trash. The following month, I had time to interact with the other residents of my building. I was the only foreigner, but I speak Chinese fluently. I understood that they were really afraid of dying from Covid-19. They still have the images of Wuhan in their minds and the state propaganda is very strong. From the moment I presented them with a certificate of remission, they were reassured. Empty display board at Shanghai airport when Thibault left for France, May 27, 2022. © Thibault / DR This return to France allows me to take a step back so as not to reach a limit that would have disgusted with China. When I left the apartment two weeks ago, the sensor was still on my door. Staying longer would have put me in a complicated mental position. I’m still thinking of coming back to Shanghai in September to finish my project. I assume it will get better because what is happening is political. I feel that the central government wants to punish Shanghai so that the leadership of Shanghai Province does not gain too much weight in the Chinese Communist Party. [dont le 20e congrès a lieu cet automne].