A TOTAL of 247 foreign-invested companies in Shanghai were included in the first batch of 666 companies on the city’s “white list” designed to support firms to resume production amid COVID-19 control, an official said Thursday.

The companies are mainly in key sectors including integrated circuits, automobile manufacturing, equipment manufacturing and biomedicine, said Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng at a press conference.

While some key foreign companies such as U.S. carmaker Tesla have already been restoring production in an orderly manner, many foreign firms have applied to join the second batch of “white list” companies to resume production, Gao said.

Shanghai has set rules for areas where COVID-19 has been eliminated as positive cases in the city continue to fall for five straight days.

The city will implement measures around the principles of “limited activities,” “a limited number of people” and “limited areas” in places free of the virus, local officials said at Wednesday’s press conference.

Strict measures such as rigorous COVID-19 testing and complete sanitization will be kept in place for Shanghai’s other areas, they said.

Positive cases in the eastern Chinese city have fallen steadily since Friday last week. The authorities reported 1,106 symptomatic cases and 11,959 asymptomatic cases Tuesday, taking the total number of positive cases to 535,600 since March.

(Xinhua, CGTN)