Covid-hit Shanghai gradually reopens businesses

SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Shanghai announced a gradual reopening from Monday of businesses, though it remains unclear when the millions of people still locked down in China's economic capital will finally be allowed out of their homes. Confronted with its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic, China — the last major economy still closed off to the world — put the city of 25 million under heavy restrictions in early April. The rigid strategy to root out virus cases at all costs has wreaked havoc on supply chains, crushed small businesses and imperilled the country's economic goals….