Shanghai to reopen public transport on Sunday

Shanghai will progressively resume public transportation services beginning on Sunday as the COVID-19 epidemic situation continues to stabilize, vice-mayor of Shanghai Zhang Wei said at a news briefing on Thursday.

Four metro lines — Line 3, 6, 10, 16 — and 273 bus routes that form a network covering the urban areas and providing access to the city's airports, railway stations, major hospitals, and commercial districts, will resume operations.

"All passengers taking public transport must show a 48-hour valid negative nucleic acid test result. Venue QR codes and autonomous inspection will also be deployed at the buses and metro stations," Zhang said.

"Also, a novel QR code system that integrates payment and codes verification will be established so that passengers only need to have one code scanned when getting on public transport," he added.

The number of trains leaving and arriving at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station and Shanghai Station will be increased gradually as well. All individuals leaving Shanghai must have a negative nucleic acid test taken within 48 hours, as well as test negative on an antigen kit 24 hours prior to departure.

Shanghai registered 82 COVID-19 confirmed cases and 637 asymptomatic infections on Wednesday. All infections were found inside quarantine and lockdown populations, said Zhao Dandan, deputy director of Shanghai Health Commission.

The number of residents in lockdown zones in the city with a population of 25 million has continued to shrink to 710,000.