On a May 19 press conference, deputy mayor Zhang Wei (张为) announced that more businesses in Shanghai will be allowed to reopen in stages in the coming month amid a declining number of new Covid-19 infections in the city. Four metro lines have opened, more bus routes are resuming operations, and trains will start running for limited hours. But the gradual reopening of Shanghai is far from the old ‘normal’; there will still be many restrictions and regulations for the city’s 26 million inhabitants as part of the zero-Covid strategy.
Zhang Wei during the press conference.
Regarding public transportation, all passengers must have a new negative nucleic acid test result (taken within 48 hours), masks will be mandatory, they will need a ‘green’ health QR code, and smart inspection devices will monitor body temperature at bus and metro stations (temperatures must be below 37,3 degrees).
As for companies, they will operate within a so-called ‘closed-loop’ or ‘semi-closed-loop’ system for this first phase of the city’s gradual reopening. Zhang Wei also introduced the terms ‘point-based work resumption’ (点式复工) and ‘bubble-style management’ (气泡式管理) to describe how some enterprises will be pushed to resume work and production processes until at least early June.
News report in which the two terms are mentioned.
Both of these terms were discussed on Chinese social media as new words added to the Covid-related vocabulary since Wuhan 2020. After the introduction of many other new words – including the recent ‘hard isolation’ and ‘permanent fangcang’ – some commenters said the terms belonged to the ‘Shanghai Epidemic Dictionary Version 4.0.’
Similar to ‘bubble-style management,’ the term “bubble closed-loop management” (气泡式闭环管理) also appeared in this year’s Winter Olympics, where participants were only allowed to move between Games-related venues for their training, catering, accommodation, etc. through a dedicated Games transport system. Participants were not allowed to leave their designated areas.
For many Chinese residents, closed-loop management systems are nothing new. After the initial lockdown phase in the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak in China, the ‘Covid-19 closed-loop management’ (新冠疫情闭环管理) was applied to various areas whenever there were new local cases of COVID-19. In early August of 2021, for example, there was a closed-loop management system for residential areas in Zhengzhou after a spike in local cases and many communities and campuses across China have seen such management periods at some point during the pandemic.
Despite closed community rules, this pedicure shop found a way to resume work. Viral image shared on Weibo in context of ‘bubble-style management.’
The most important thing the closed-loop approach does is create a barrier between an ‘inside’ community and the ‘outside’ world, with very strict checks on who can enter and exit the area, and usually a ban on group gatherings within the area. Residents sometimes get an access card to enter/exit the district, but any outsiders, including couriers and delivery staff, are not allowed inside the closed surroundings.
The closed-loop measure is not the same as a lockdown (“封城”). The main goal of the closed-loop ‘bubble’ approach is to limit and reduce the flow of people and their movements within an area in order to dramatically reduce the risks of new infections among people within the bubble.
The Olympic ‘bubble system’ was so strict that authorities even issued a statement saying locals should not approach people on an Olympic vehicle in the case of an accident or crash (they would need to call the emergency number and maintain their distance), in order to make sure that there would be no contact at all between people from within the bubble and outside the bubble.
“The bubble system basically means that most Shanghai companies can’t reopen because their companies do not have the capabilities to create a bubble.”
Shanghai’s current ‘point-based work resumption’ (点式复工) and ‘bubble-style management’ (气泡式管理) are both epidemic prevention measures during this first stage of Shanghai’s gradual reopening to resume work, given that the requirements and conditions for the resumption of work are met.
‘Point-based work resumption’ is an active policy for people holding key positions at companies within the non-manufacturing sector that are resuming work. According to the ‘point-to-point’ (点对点) strategy, employees are either staying within the closed loop of their workplace or within the premises of their community. They can only return to their workplace once a month, and are not allowed to stay longer than one week.
‘Bubble-style management’ refers to the closed-loop commute system between workplaces and residential communities through a direct company shuttle bus. The ‘bubble’ can not be broken, meaning only workplaces with zero Covid risks and communities without any cases can be inside such a bubble commute system.
The difference between bubble-style management and ‘closed-loop management’ (闭环管理) is that the first still allows people to go out and move between home and work. In the case of strict ‘closed management,’ people are confined to their work dorms or their residential community.
“Can we issue a Covid dictionary, please?” one commenter asked, with many still confused about what the two terms actually mean and how they are different from each other: “What does it even mean?”
“The bubble system basically means that most Shanghai companies can’t reopen because their companies do not have the capabilities to create a ‘bubble.’ It seems impossible unless the government provides them with the ‘bubble,'” another Shanghai-based commenter said.
Others also suggested the ‘bubble system’ is just another way to get people stuck inside their workplace. If there would be a Covid infection in the workplace, employees potentially could get stuck there as they would not be allowed to return home due to the risk of bringing a new case into their community compound.
On Weibo, some say the term ‘bubbe-style management’ sounds like it comes straight from a science fiction novel, with others adding: “We’re already in the future.”
For more articles on the Covid-19 topics on Chinese social media, check here.
By Manya Koetse
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