COVID outbreak and lockdown in Shanghai: after another record number of cases, uncertainty over food arrivals grows

Daily Covid-19 infections in Shanghai set a record for the sixth consecutive day on Thursday, as mass citywide testing identified 19,982 cases in China's financial and commercial center.

The number of symptomatic cases increased to 322, from 311 the previous day, while the vast majority of positively identified infections showed no symptoms of illness, according to data provided by Shanghai health authorities.

China's financial center has largely fallen silent after the city imposed harsh restrictions to stop the spread of COVID under the country's “zero tolerance” policy, with only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery staff or people with special permits allowed on the streets.

Authorities say that has reduced the number of delivery people, who must keep the city's 26 million residents supplied to just 11,000. Services still in operation but overloaded include Meituan and Alibaba's Freshippo online grocery platform and its Ele.me service.

Closures for residents of the city east of the Huangpu River began on March 28, while closures for the rest of the city began on April 1. Originally, the restrictions were meant to last five days.

The Shanghai branch of the Communist Party of China called on members to “dare to show their swords and fight against all kinds of behavior that interferes with and destroys overall efforts against the pandemic” in an open letter Wednesday night.

Shanghai has sufficient stocks of basic foods such as rice and meat, but distribution and delivery problems have recently arisen due to epidemic control measures, Shanghai Deputy Mayor Chen Tong said Thursday at a press conference.

He said the city would try to reopen some wholesale markets and food stores and allow more delivery personnel to leave closed areas. Officials will also take strong action against rising prices, he added.

Meituan moved more than 1,000 sorting workers to Shanghai from all over China, with plans to expand the team, Mao said. The company deployed robots to pilot zones in the Kangqiao area of Pudong to assist volunteers with deliveries. As of Thursday, the robots were put into use at Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai and at Fudan University.

“As a high-tech Internet retail company based in Shanghai, we are taking multiple steps to provide food supplies to residents,” said Meituan Vice President Mao Fang.

Many neighbors are beginning to worry about food and drinking water, as well as getting products such as baby formula.

Some have complained on social media about having to wake up at dawn to get the chance to book gasoline, but it was over in seconds. Others turned to WeChat community groups to try to buy fruits and vegetables in bulk.

Social media users have also widely shared their outrage over individual tragedies, including the alleged suicide of a woman after being cyberbullied for paying too little to a delivery man, and a health worker who beat a corgi dog to death after its owner allegedly killed was quarantined.

Shanghai, which has been conducting several rounds of testing, reported on Wednesday about 20,000 new cases transmitted locally, 98% of which said they were asymptomatic.

However, there are indications that transmission continues to occur despite the blockages. Of its 19,660 asymptomatic infections, 633 involved people who were not in quarantine or facing control measures, the data showed.

China's most populous city has yet to give an indication of when the blockade measures will be lifted, fueling uncertainty and leading European companies and economists to warn of the rising cost they are taking on its economy and its attractiveness as an international financial center.

However, the economic impact is not limited to Shanghai, as 87 of China's top 100 cities impose some level of restrictions on activity and mobility “in the hope of keeping COVID under control and avoiding Shanghai's fate,” said Gavekal Dragonomics analyst Ernan Cui, in a statement. Note on Thursday.

The coronavirus was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. Starting Monday, Shanghai will reduce the maximum load on international flights of foreign airlines by 40%, up from 75% previously, in a bid to reduce imported cases, two sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The city is a hub for the very few international flights that still arrive in China. On Thursday, the Shanghai disciplinary agency said it had fired an official of a subsidiary of the Shanghai Airport Group, as well as the undersecretary of a district mental health center for his misimplementation of virus control measures.

Although Shanghai's number of cases remains small by global standards, the city has become a testbed for China's “dynamic debugging” strategy, which seeks to centrally assess, track and quarantine all positive cases and close contacts. Shanghai has converted dozens of buildings into quarantine facilities that can hold tens of thousands of positive cases.

About 38,000 medical personnel from 15 regions at the provincial level have been sent to Shanghai to support its mass testing exercise, Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission, said during a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday. Several Y-20 military aircraft loaded with 2,000 members of the People's Liberation Army (EPL) medical personnel arrived at Hongqiao airfield on Sunday evening, carrying test equipment and protective equipment.

Shanghai has reported 114,000 cases since the last wave of outbreaks began on March 1, registering more cases in a month than in the previous two years combined. The new infection figures on Wednesday exceeded 13,436 cases recorded on February 12, 2000 in Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak was first reported.

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