On Thursday, Shanghai recorded eight official Covid-19 deaths, indicating an increasing death toll even as daily instances drop down and some residents are finally permitted to step outside under a relaxing curfew.

China's largest city and economic engine are nearing reopening following weeks of restrictions that kept the majority of its 25 million residents confined to their homes.

Confronted with the country's biggest viral outbreak in two years, Shanghai redoubled its commitment to the Communist Party's unwavering zero-COVID policy at the expense of business and morale.

The outbreak, fueled by the rapidly spreading Omicron variety, is the country's worst in two years and has called into question Beijing's inflexible, sequestering policy to a virus that much of the world is learning to live with.

China has highlighted a low official death toll from the virus as proof that its strategy is working — even as critics doubt if those data accurately reflect the actual toll.

While the outbreak has claimed upwards of 400,000 infections since March, Shanghai has documented only 25 deaths, the first of which occurred on Monday.

According to authorities, the deaths occurred in older people with underlying medical issues who had not received coronavirus immunizations.

The average age of the eight patients reported Thursday was 77.5; city officials said that the individuals had previous health problems such as malignant tumors and high blood pressure.

According to the municipal authority, the death was caused by an "underlying disease."

On Thursday, Shanghai recorded more than 18,000 new coronavirus cases, most of which were asymptomatic, marking the second consecutive day with infections below the 20,000 mark.

With the outbreak believed to have peaked, the megacity is cautiously resuming normalcy, with Tesla and Volkswagen among the 666 enterprises identified to resume production this week.

Around 12 million people who were previously prohibited from leaving their houses have been authorized to do so in the last few days.

However, many residents were upset to discover that their movements remained restricted even after being released from the most severe type of lockdown, which prohibited individuals from leaving their apartments.

Throughout Shanghai's shutdown, complaints have flooded the social media platform Weibo, delivering a rare sight of discontent typically wiped out by censorship.

While officials announced the lowering of some obstacles, some tenants complained online about policy inconsistencies as construction workers arrived to reinforce barriers surrounding their apartment buildings.