Shanghai's daily Covid-19 death toll fell by the most since fatalities were reported in China's commercial hub two weeks ago, reinforcing the push by local authorities to gradually ease the citywide lockdown and restart production at more factories.

Fatalities fell 19 per cent to 38 in the previous 24 hours, according to data released on Sunday. Total cases fell 14.4 per cent to 7,872, the eighth consecutive day of decline, while symptomatic cases slumped 37 per cent to 788.

New cases in the low-risk unguarded zones hit zero for the second consecutive day, adding to evidence that Shanghai had achieved the so-called societal zero-Covid goal, a situation when new cases are limited to people already in quarantine.

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Stopping the spread outside quarantined areas is a key metric for Chinese officials as they seek to reopen their cities. The country's most developed metropolis with a population of 25 million has yet to publish a time frame for lifting the citywide lockdown that started on April 1.

"Shanghai remains cautious about announcing it had achieved societal zero-Covid goal because the highly transmissible Omicron variant could easily rebound if there is a let-up in virus control measures," said Meng Tianying, a senior executive at Shanghai-based consultancy Domo Medical.

"But city officials are set to ease lockdown measures gradually from now on," Meng said.

Gu Honghui, deputy secretary general of Shanghai government, told a press briefing on Sunday that people living in six districts - Songjiang, Putuo, Jinshan, Fengxian, Chongming and Qingpu - were allowed to venture out on to the streets because they had achieved societal zero-Covid goal.

But he added that only a limited number of people would be allowed to move around in limited areas.

"We emphasise that an easing of the lockdown does not necessarily lead to a complacency in virus control," Gu said. "We still urge people not to leave their residential compounds to avoid gathering unless necessary."

Since mid-April, Shanghai has been aiming to bring new cases in the "precautionary zones"- or areas in which not a single new case was detected in the past 14 days - and their neighbouring areas to zero. After achieving this, the municipal government will then shift its focus to preventing the disease from spilling beyond the highest risk areas and hospitals into the wider community.