COVID restrictions ease in Shanghai as case numbers drop

BEIJING (AP) — Shanghai is reopening its Disney Resort theme park and getting ready to allow in-person dining. Domestically transmitted cases of COVID-19 in China’s largest city have settled at zero following a more than two-month lockdown. Chinese officials hail their hard-line “zero-COVID” policy for stemming the growth of cases and deaths from the virus. But the strategy takes an enormous toll on the Chinese economy and international supply chains reliant on China’s manufacturing and shipping abilities. China has repeatedly defended the policy. Indications are it will maintain “zero-COVID” at least through the spring of 2023. That’s when President Xi Jinping is expected to be installed for a third five-year term as head of the world’s second-largest economy and rising competitor to the U.S.