Beijing, Shanghai residents back to work as China limps towards living with COVID

Mask-wearing Beijing and Shanghai commuters crowded subway trains on Monday as China's two biggest cities edged closer to living with COVID-19 even as frontline medical workers scrambled to cope with millions of new infections.

After three years of harsh anti-coronavirus curbs, President Xi Jinping scrapped China's zero-COVID policy of lock-downs and relentless testing on Dec. 7 in the face of public protests and a widening outbreak.

"Our country's new coronavirus epidemic prevention and control is facing new situations and new tasks," the official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying on Monday in remarks on public health, marking one of his first references to China's recent policy shift.

The virus is now spreading largely unchecked across the country of 1.4 billion people, with doubts mounting among health experts and residents about Beijing's statistics, which show no new COVID deaths reported for the six days through Sunday.

Doctors say hospitals are overwhelmed with five- to six-times more patients than usual, mostly elderly.

All levels of government must further intensify their efforts to ensure demand for medical treatment and supplies are being met, Premier Li Keqiang was also quoted by Xinhua in its report as saying.

"I am prepared to live with the pandemic," said 25-year-old Shanghai resident Lin Zixin. "Lock-downs are not a long-term solution."