Good news for high school and college students in Shanghai.

Some of them will be able to return to school benches in June, with the reopening of classes, the authorities said on Thursday.

Faced with the resurgence of Covid-19 which has hit China for a few months, a large part of the 25 million inhabitants of the city, the most populous in the country, have been forced to stay at home since the beginning of April.

With the sharp decrease in the number of positive cases in recent weeks, several restrictions have already been lifted.

But people can usually only go out for a few hours a day at best.

Face-to-face for some, online courses for others

However, junior and senior high school students, who are approaching the very demanding university entrance exam, will be able to return to high school on June 6, said Yang Zhenfeng, deputy director of the city's education department.

Third-year students will be allowed to join their college from June 13.

As for the other students, they will have to continue to take their online lessons at home.

“A specialized organization will offer PCR tests to teachers and students (…) at the end of classes, so that they can obtain their results before classes resume the next day,” said Mr. Yang.

Containment that weighs heavily on the morale of the inhabitants

The Health Ministry on Thursday announced 338 new positive cases in Shanghai over the past 24 hours -- up from more than 25,000 at the end of last month.

But the long confinement and travel restrictions are weighing heavily on the morale of the inhabitants and on the economy.

However, the town hall has already authorized certain factories and public transport lines to reopen.

China, unlike most countries in the world, still applies a zero Covid strategy, which intends to limit the number of deaths as much as possible via massive confinements as soon as a few cases appear.

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