After President Xi Jinping stressed the need to "lessen the impact" of the coronavirus outbreak on the country's economy, Shenzhen, China's southern tech powerhouse, has partially lifted lockdown measures.
Shenzhen's authorities announced late Thursday that employment, manufacturing activities, and public transportation in four districts and a special economic zone have restarted in the metropolis of 17.5 million people, which had been under full lockdown since Sunday.
It went on to say that certain places have "achieved dynamic zero-Covid in the community."
The National Health Commission said China has recorded 4,365 new cases nationally on Friday, as the country confronts a statewide Omicron outbreak, the country's largest coronavirus outbreak since early 2020.
Across the country, millions of people are still under lockdown, many of them under hyper-local restrictions intended at constricting groups as they arise without closing down entire cities.
Since the outbreak, China has adhered to a "dynamic zero-COVID-19" plan, which includes targeted lockdowns, mass testing, and travel restrictions - an approach that has isolated it in a world adjusting to the pandemic.
However, repeated viral outbreaks in major port and industrial towns have slowed the country's economic growth, prompting Beijing to announce the lowest GDP target in decades earlier this month.
According to a notice from Shenzhen's virus response command center, the new measures were implemented to reconcile epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development.
Shenzhen is home to supply lines for major industries producing everything from iPhones to washing machines, as well as campuses for some of China's largest IT enterprises.
Yantian port, whose three-week closure due to an outbreak last summer aggravated global shipping delays, is one of the regions where restrictions have been loosened.
Shenzhen's epidemic condition "remains serious, but is usually controllable," according to the warning, which also stated that the city has conducted two rounds of mass virus testing on its residents.
Due to viral lockdowns, Foxconn's Shenzhen-based plants were temporarily shut down earlier this week, causing a huge selloff of Chinese tech companies traded in Hong Kong.
The steps were enacted after Xi alluded to China's zero-Covid strategy's spiraling economic consequences during a Politburo meeting on Thursday, vowing to "stick to" the approach, saying "persistence is triumph."
According to a Friday post on the city's official Weibo account, eight Shenzhen officials have been fired so far for their allegedly poor handling of the outbreak.
The National Health Commission said, Shenzhen recorded 105 new cases on Friday.
