Brenda Goh, Ella Cao

SHANGHAI (Reuters). China’s capital Shanghai said Wednesday that it had not received any new COVID-19 cases in quarantine areas outside of two district boundaries. It spurred hopes that China is winning its pandemic war, with some factories returning to work.

After a halt for more than three months, state media reported that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc had resumed production at their Shanghai plant Tuesday.

According to the Chinese government, 666 U.S. companies were on the list that would be given priority by Shanghai’s authorities last week.

Wu Qianyu, a city official in charge of health said Wednesday that the city’s recent epidemic condition had shown a declining trend. “Community spread was effectively controlled.”

After the March outbreak, strict lockdown measures left 25 million residents of the city struggling to cope with loss in income, food irregularities, and quarantine conditions.

Wu stated that although 16.3million people cannot leave their homes or flats, 7.85million are able to return to factories and walk out, an increase of 2,000,000 since last week.

However, some people subject to less restrictive curbs report that they have not been able to get the approval they require from local officials in order to venture out.

This week authorities increased daily screening of residents and transferred positive patients, along with their close relatives to quarantine centers outside Shanghai.

Users of social media have shared their stories of people being bused out of homes to be quarantined, including babies.

On Tuesday in Shanghai, 16,407 cases of local coronavirus asymptomatic were reported. This is a decrease from the 17,332 that was reported on Monday. The number of symptoms fell from 3,084 to 2,494.

On Tuesday, seven victims of COVID-19 were reported dead by city authorities. Since the outbreak started, 17 people have died. This includes all those who were infected within the last three days.

However, many residents claim that someone in their family died from COVID-19. Official statistics do not include these cases, which raises doubts about the accuracy of those claims.

Shanghai’s government didn’t immediately reply to inquiries regarding the death toll.

Sources tell Reuters Shanghai aims at stopping the spread COVID-19 beyond quarantined zones by Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Wednesday’s new 390 cases were outside of quarantine zones, a decrease from Monday’s 550. Jinshan (and Chongming) were two of Shanghai’s 16 district, reporting no cases in areas outside the quarantine area, while seven other districts reported numbers below the single digits.

Others cities in lockdown have begun to relax their curbs, having stopped transmission from outside the quarantine area.

Health officials stated that the priority for people living in Shanghai is to increase elderly vaccination rates. Only 62% have had their vaccines completed, while 38% received a booster.

STUTTERING REESTART

China’s tight control measures have caused problems for the world’s second-largest economy and global supply networks. Analysts don’t expect production to recover immediately, although some factories have resumed operations.

The majority of workers will need to reside on the site. In order to avoid disruptions in supply lines or access to market, factories have to address supply line issues and manage any problems with markets. Supply chains can be slowed by closings in other cities as well as difficulties at ports and trucking companies.

An official of China’s European Union Chamber of Commerce warned that many companies were facing a logistical problem when they resumed production.

Bettina Schön-Behanzin, vice president, said that there were between 40% to 50% fewer trucks and less than 30% of workers could return to work.

“There’s a huge gap between policy and the reality of implementation,” she added.

Kunshan is a neighboring city and home to many of the suppliers Apple (NASDAQ):). Taiwanese companies that make electronic components and chip parts reported mixed results when it came to resuming their work.

Unimicron Technology Corp, a chip substrate and printed circuit board manufacturer, stated that it will resume slowly, while Asia Electronic Material Co Ltd (which makes parts for mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras) said its plant would remain closed.