* Move to categorise residential areas grants some relief
* Sunday's asymptomatic infections at record daily high of 25,173
* Complaints continue about tough curbs, enforced quarantine
* Unclear how many homes will be immediately freed from lockdown (Adds comments from residents as lockdowns lift in some areas)
By David Stanway
SHANGHAI, April 11 (Reuters) - China's financial centre of Shanghai started easing its lockdown in some areas on Monday despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new COVID-19 infections, as authorities sought to get the city moving again after more than two weeks.
Pressure has been mounting on authorities in China's most populous city, and one of its wealthiest, from residents growing increasingly frustrated as the curbs dragged on, leaving some struggling to find enough food and medicine.
City officials announced on Monday morning that they were grouping residential units into three risk categories as a step towards allowing "appropriate activity" by those in neighbourhoods with no positive cases during a two-week stretch, adding that district authorities would publish further details.
Among the first districts to release lists were the industrial area of Jinshan on Shanghai's southwestern edge and the central area of Jing'an, which posted the names of residential sites still in high- and medium-risk categories.
While videos published by local media showed that most residents in areas earmarked for easing were still locked in and waiting to be notified of next steps by their neighbourhood committees, they also showed some people trickling out from their homes onto the streets.
"It's good to be out finally, although there's nowhere to go," a resident who gave her surname as Qin told Reuters.
The step provides some relief for many cooped up for more than three weeks in the battle against China's biggest outbreak since the coronavirus was first found in central Wuhan in late 2019.
City official Gu Honghui said Shanghai was divided into 7,624 areas that were still sealed off, with a group of 2,460 now subject to "controls" after a week of no new infections, and 7,565 "prevention areas" to be opened after two weeks without a positive case.
Those in "prevention areas" who move around their neighbourhoods must observe social distancing and could be sealed off again if there are new infections, Gu added.
NO CHOICE
Some social media users criticised the easing move as risky at a time of record new daily cases, but others said Shanghai had no choice.