Business venues to re-open offline services from Monday
Citizens shop at a re-opened supermarket in Putuo District.
Shanghai will gradually restore the offline operations of its malls, markets, eateries, hair salons and other businesses from Monday to guarantee basic daily supplies to its citizens, the city's vice mayor said on Sunday.
The principle is to open in an orderly manner with limited movement and effective control and classified management. Strict COVID-19 prevention and control measures will be implemented, vice mayor Chen Tong said.
The number of visitors will be limited, with separate entry and exit channels at the re-opened shopping complexes, department stores, supermarkets, convenient stores and pharmacies.
Wet markets will control both the number of stalls and visitor flows, while wholesale markets will limit the number of buyers and suspend retail services, Chen told the city's press briefing.
The number of re-opened commercial businesses has been increased to 10,625 from less than 1,400 during the peak of the pandemic, Chen said. More than 5 million online orders are being delivered every day.
"The city will keep driving the restoration of all eligible businesses and allow employees to return to work to ensure basic life guarantees and daily necessity supplies," he added.
Restaurants will only receive online orders and offer take-away meals, while hair salons and laundry-related businesses will provide limited and staggered services.
Citizens line up at a supermarket in Putuo.
Citizens return home after shopping at a re-opened market.
These businesses are asked to make full COVID-19 prevention plans, and conduct preventative disinfection before re-opening to customers.
The "venue QR code" and the all-in-one machine for health code scanning, ID verification and temperature check, also known as "digital sentinel," must be deployed at entrances.
Customers are also reminded to obey the rules, wear self protection, scan the venue code before entering sites and keep social distance.
"We believe more businesses will re-open with the further improvement of the city's pandemic situation to allow citizens to enjoy better services," Chen said.
Meanwhile, the city government will keep supplying daily necessities for locked-down and controlled areas. The market watchdog will impose strict supervision on the quality and food safety of gift packs. Citizens are welcome report issues through the hotline 12315, the vice mayor said.
A total of 183 chain supermarkets and 673 convenient stores have restored offline operations as of Saturday. More other re-opened stores are accepting online orders only, said Gu Jun, director of the Shanghai Commerce Commission.
A total of 118,000 delivery staff in Shanghai have been authorized to return to work. They are asked to take a PCR and two antigen tests every day. The courier and e-commerce firms are required to offer them protection gear and conduct frequent inspections.
The city has built 267 service stations for delivery staff to drink water, take a rest or have meals, including 90 percent with accommodation, according to Gu.
A customer shops for meat at a local supermarket.
