The Shanghai authorities had previously insisted that the city would not go into a lockdown, to the point of investigating people for “fabricating information” that suggest otherwise. Instead, authorities developed a “slice-and-grid” system that shut down apartment complexes on a rolling basis while residents were being monitored. But on Sunday, the local government took it a step further and announced an east-west lockdown, testing the patience of residents who had already suffered minor restrictions. Some asked why the city did not just take bigger measures earlier. “A complete lockdown in the city would have saved a lot of time and infections … (including) the psychological trauma of being in a Covid ward,” a resident of the eastern Pudong district of Li told CNN. The change also dashed hopes that Shanghai’s method would provide a less subversive model for China’s “zero Covid” policy, as Beijing called on local leaders to minimize disruptions to the economy and daily life. But doing so while being held accountable for the spread of the virus under “zero Covid” was like being asked to achieve “contradictory goals,” according to Yanzhong Huang, a senior health associate at the Council on Foreign Relations. New York. “Ultimately, local governments have no choice but to take this heavy-handed approach to get things done in these conditions,” he said.
Panicked market
Chinese authorities made the announcement in a statement shortly after 8pm on Sunday night – assuring residents that local officials would ensure there were enough supplies to last during the trial period.
But people panicked anyway, crowding into markets that extended their opening hours to meet demand.
A social media user on the popular Twitter-like Weibo platform said the attempt to buy products was like a “losing battle” and likened the experience to the turmoil of the 1960s, when food was scarce.
Another, whose residential block was already subject to local restrictions when the wider lockdown began, complained that they could not refuel and questioned the government’s ability to provide enough food in the city.
In the past, other Chinese cities have had problems supporting residents as local authorities deal with lockdown logistics. In Xi’an late last year, residents were left without food while under severe lockdown across the city – a symptom of a catastrophic lack of planning that rocked the country at the time.
Asked about concerns about food shortages during the lockdown, Gu Jun, director of the Shanghai Municipal Trade Commission, told a news conference Monday that the city was “strengthening its organization of sources of supply”.
Quarantine crash
Although small by international standards, the growing number of cases in Shanghai has put additional pressure on the city’s healthcare system.
Like other Chinese cities, Shanghai sends all those who test positive to hospitals or quarantine centers, with no home quarantine allowed, regardless of the severity of the symptoms.
The city has already converted six hospitals, two closed stadiums and an exhibition center into government quarantine centers, according to Shanghai health officials.
However, as cases increase, concerns have been raised about the living conditions in these facilities.
“Hundreds of people live together, in the cold and bad conditions. Men and women are quarantined together without any privacy. We use a public toilet and we have to fight for food. Does quarantine really help us?” read a post on social media by a user who said he was in a converted showroom.
Another, who was taken to hospital, said they had a “scary night” after being diagnosed, sleeping on the floor in an “airtight room”.
“No one could tell us where or when they would be taken, only more and more people were admitted to quarantine together,” the user wrote.
Another user expressed surprise that this could happen in one of the most advanced cities in the country.
“This is Shanghai anti-epidemic policy: to shut people down first and then think about what to do next. No one gave us medicine, not even doctors. Patients are sitting on the ground and trembling,” the user wrote. “Is this Shanghai that people relied on?”
