Shenzhen, on March 22, declared the city as one of the low-risk regions in the epidemic.

This means the city will open all of its public sites, and a city that had been brought to a virtual standstill is now ready to resume normal operations.

Liu Zhiyong, head of the Luohu government who lunched at the McDonald's outlet in Dongmen of Luohu on that day, said: "The difficulty will pass, so will the epidemic. And we must carry on with our normal lives."

As of that day, Shenzhen has not seen a new local infection for 30 straight days, while the figure is 38 days in Luohu.

In the second half of the match, if not war, against the virus, more attention will be given to resume industrial production and business operations.

According to Zhou Jianjun, chief of Luohu industry and information bureau, about a quarter of the district's gross domestic product comes from wholesale and retail operations, hotels, restaurants and tourism, and these industries contain half of the enterprises and provide more than 80 percent of jobs in the district.

The district government is offering the catering industry loans up to 20 million yuan ($2.83 million), to help needy business owners; the government has also cut and even exempted rents to a total of more than 60 million yuan for the lessees of its properties; following its call, the other landlords also reduced and exempted their rents for businesses totaling nearly 400 million yuan.

Luohu was also the first district government in Shenzhen to cancel the government's examination and approval procedures for enterprises intending to resume their operation.

It was also the first district government in the city vowing to appropriate 50 million yuan to stimulate consumption in the hope to helping cope with the economic repercussions of the epidemic.

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