Power consumption in Shenzhen returns to normal levels from earlier this month

Power consumption in the industrial sectors in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, has returned to the normal levels seen before the city introduced a week-long lockdown on its residential communities, villages and industrial zones amid the latest resurgence of COVID-19, according to a local official.

Citing the local industrial power consumption on Monday, which has returned to levels before March 13, Yu Xiquan, director of the Shenzhen Municipal Industrial and Information Bureau, said the city has shown greater confidence in its industrial development.

"Industrial enterprises have generally operated their businesses normally," Yu said, "and we have worked closely with the majority of local industrial enterprises to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and stabilize production."

All government agencies, public institutions and businesses in Shenzhen-except in part of its Futian district-resumed normal operations on Monday, after the city maintained zero-COVID status at the community level from March 14 to 20.

Huang Qiang, deputy secretary-general of the Shenzhen Municipal Government, said the city would introduce a package of financial relief measures as soon as possible to bail out businesses experiencing difficulties from the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

"We will implement various steps to boost assistance for micro and small and medium-sized businesses, including allowing deferred, reduced and refund payments of rent, taxes, social insurance, housing provident fund, utility bills and other expenses," Huang said during a press conference on Tuesday evening.

In another development, Shenzhen has fully resumed operation of public transportations, with its bus and metro networks returning to normal capacity in the past two days, according to Xu Wei, deputy director of the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau.

The city's metro network handled more than 4 million passenger trips on Monday and Tuesday, while its buses, with more than 850 routes, helped transport about 1.46 million passenger trips after a seven-day lockdown on its residential communities, villages and industrial zones.

"Given it was the two workdays, some stations, especially interchange stations like the Shenzhen North Station, saw a passenger surge stranded on the platforms," Xu said.

Xu called on local passengers to stay alert of the COVID-19 pandemic by wearing masks, undergoing temperature checks and scanning venue codes before boarding buses and trains.

Shenzhen reported five new confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and four asymptomatic carriers on Wednesday, according to the local health commission.