Pandemic-hit Shanghai, China’s financial powerhouse, presented further post-lockdown plans on Thursday as it comes closer to normalcy, but a broader economic recovery remains a long way off, emphasizing the need for additional assistance.

The economic production of China’s largest metropolis has suffered as a result of the lockdown enforced in early April. Other cities, notably Beijing, that are not under lockdown but are nevertheless confined in by COVID restrictions have suffered, with the highly transmissible Omicron eliciting greater responses from health officials this year.

Because the government has refused to relax its zero tolerance policy on COVID, companies and businesses have been battered by interruptions caused by lockdowns, ongoing mass testing, and movement restrictions on large swaths of the populace.

Shanghai is set to finally emerge from its lockdown on June 1 after new infections fell sharply. The mega-city of 25 million people has been cautiously allowing more of its population to venture out and putting more vehicles back onto its once busy streets and boulevards.