(Yicai Global) May 16 -- Shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and pharmacies will be among the next businesses in Shanghai to start resuming in-store operations as Covid-19 case rates subside, according to a vice mayor of the city.

More than 10,000 businesses have reopened outlets, up from a record low of fewer than 1,400 during the latest wave of Covid-19 this spring, Chen Tong told a press conference yesterday. The volume of daily orders has reached five million, he added.

Shanghai reported 69 new Covid-19 cases and 869 asymptomatic infections yesterday, according to figures the local health authority released today. It was the first day since the beginning of the recent resurgence that daily infections fell below 1,000.

The locked-down city of 25 million residents is expected to get back to normal life next month, Vice Mayor Zong Ming told reporters today. Rail and road and transit should gradually pick up from May 22, she added.

A shopping mall in Putuo district operated by Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub is preparing to reopen and staff have already settled in, according to a company executive. Many businesses are operating under closed-loop systems in which workers sleep on site to avoid infection.

The affiliate of Shanghai-based property giant Greenland Holdings has eight shopping centers in the city, with some of their vendors resuming online sale since last month to ensure needed supplies. And in recent days a number of hairdressers and barbers in these malls have been inundated with bookings after taking them again, the executive said.

State-backed Shanghai Vegetable Group told Yicai Global that six of its wet markets have been getting ready to reopen. Wholesale markets for farm produce are already active with constantly rising daily transaction volumes. Retailer Yuyuan Tourist Mart Group is also preparing to reopen physical stores in line with the city's Covid-19 restrictions, it said.

More than 4,400 key industrial firms in Shanghai, nearly half of the total, have returned to work, Wu Jincheng, director of the local economic and information technology commission, said at a press briefing on May 13.

Editor: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi