SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc reported that its Shanghai plant has returned to close to 70% the weekly production it achieved before being locked down by COVID-19. Two people who are familiar with this matter claim they have restored the Shanghai plant’s output.

People familiar with the situation declined to identify themselves as it is confidential.

Tesla has not yet responded to my request for comment.

Despite being locked out of China’s economic hub, Tesla Shanghai Plant (known as Gigafactory 3), has had difficulty bringing production back up to levels before the shutdown.

Although Tesla had received significant assistance from the city to reopen its doors, it still faced many obstacles, such as insufficient staff and logistical problems that affected the supply of parts.

It was forced to postpone or reduce output, and to even stop production entirely at once.

According to the China Passenger Car Association, the Tesla factory had reopened April 19. It produced 10,757 Tesla cars and sold 1,512 by April 31.

This was compared with 65,814 vehicles sold in March. It also marked the lowest number of sales since April 2020 when the factory began delivering Chinese-made cars.

Shanghai authorities are going to cancel conditions for companies to return to work on Wednesday. This is in preparation to lift the current two-month-old city-wide lockdown. They will also be introducing policies to help its battered economy.

In an effort to increase consumption, the government increased its car ownership quotas by 40,000 and subsidized people who swap their older combustion engines for electric vehicles.

After Premier Li Keqiang’s key meeting last Wednesday, he asked local authorities for measures to boost economic growth and reduce rising unemployment. This was after strict zero-COVID restrictions in China had hampered production and drained consumption in many areas of the country.