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 Shanghai is nearing the conclusion of the two-month Covid-19 lockdown.

On Monday, Shanghai registered 29 new cases, continuing a steady fall from almost 20,000 instances each day in April. Meanwhile, 18 more cases were reported in Beijing on Monday.

Shanghai authorities say they will take important moves toward reopening China's largest metropolis on Wednesday, following a two-month Covid-19 shutdown that has stifled the national economy and confined millions of people to their homes.

Vice Mayor Zong Ming said Tuesday during a daily press conference on the city's outbreak that full bus and subway service, as well as basic rail connections with the rest of China, will be restored.

Schools will reopen to students on a voluntary basis, while shopping malls, supermarkets, convenience stores, and medicine stores will progressively reopen to no more than 75% of their total capacity. Cinemas and fitness centres will be closed.

Officials appear eager to speed up what has been a progressive easing in recent days, having established June 1 as the target date for reopening earlier in May. A few malls and markets have reopened, and some inhabitants have been handed passes that allow them to leave for a few hours. Cynicism about the slow pace and stop-and-go nature of opening up gave way Tuesday to excitement at the prospect of being able to move around freely in the city in at least some discussion groups.

Shanghai recorded 29 new cases on Monday, continuing a steady decline from more than 20,000 a day in April. Li Qiang, the top official from China’s ruling Communist Party in Shanghai, at a meeting Monday was quoted as saying that the city had made major achievements in fighting the outbreak through continuous struggle.

The success came at a price. Authorities imposed a suffocating citywide lockdown under China’s “zero-Covid” strategy that aims to snuff out any outbreak with mass testing and isolation at centralized facilities of anyone who is infected. Schools will reopen for the final two years of high school and the third year of middle school, but students can decide whether to attend in person. Other grades and kindergarten remain closed. Beijing, the nation’s capital, further eased restrictions Tuesday in some districts. The city imposed limited lockdowns, but nothing near a citywide level, in a much smaller outbreak that appears to be on the wane. Beijing recorded 18 new cases on Monday.