Residents living in areas that have zero COVID-19 community transmission will be permitted limited mobility, the Shanghai municipal government announced on Wednesday.

The city reported 1,606 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 11,956 asymptomatic infections on Tuesday, a big fall in numbers compared with the previous day. Moreover, only 171 of these individuals were from outside controlled or closed-loop management zones, according to statistics from the municipal health commission.

Zhao Dandan, deputy director of the municipal health commission, said that though efforts to break the transmission chains have started to show good results, the overall epidemic situation is still "very grim".

Stringent epidemic control measures including closed-loop management, nucleic acid and antigen testing, thorough epidemiological investigation and disinfection will continue in areas that have yet to achieve zero community transmission, Zhao added.

Another round of nucleic acid and antigen testing will take place from Wednesday to Saturday based on each compound's current risk level. The list of locked down, controlled and precautionary areas will then be adjusted based on the test results, Zhao added.