For weeks, China’s most populous city, Shanghai, has been under strict blockade orders in a bid to control the coronavirus epidemic. Its 25 million residents are trapped at home, struggling to eat or receive medical care for sick family members. Others are locked up in makeshift quarantine centers and temporary hospitals, unsure when they will be allowed to leave.
Li Moyin, 34, was among those locked in their homes. She lives with her parents, both in their 70s, in the Putuo district of Shanghai, where she has been closed since March 27, working as a part-time translator and trying to provide enough food for their household. For Lee, who grew up in Shanghai, seeing how the once bustling financial center – which residents previously believed was a model for balancing covid prevention measures with normal life – is troubling.
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Empty roads in Shanghai on April 5, during a phased block due to covid-19. A worker wearing personal protective equipment rides a bicycle on the street during the blockade of covid-19 in Shanghai’s Jing’an district on April 8. (Qilai Shen / Bloomberg and Hector Retamal / Getty Images)
Speaking in text and video conversations with her boyfriend in a closed position elsewhere in the city, Lee spent hours discussing whether such drastic measures were necessary, especially when most of Shanghai’s cases are patients without severe symptoms. Lee’s boyfriend – who is from Wuhan, where covid was first discovered and 11 million people have experienced an unprecedented 76-day blockade – argues in favor of a swift and harsh blockade.
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The prospect of a long blockade began to affect emotionally. A widespread video shows residents of a large residential complex in Putuo screaming from their balconies. In the video, a passer-by can be heard saying, “The whole building is screaming. … What is the main problem? “People don’t know how long this situation will last.”
According to government regulations, nearly 300,000 residents who have tested positive for coronavirus since early March and their close contacts must be sent to mass quarantine centers or hospitals, depending on the severity of their symptoms. Many residents fear more than getting the virus, reluctant to be locked up in rapidly built temporary field hospitals, some of which have rebuilt schools or construction sites. They often do not have doctors and nurses on hand or private sleeping or bathing facilities.
The videos show people fighting for stretched thin consumables, trying to close leaks and in some cases trying to escape from the centers. Residents of a residential complex in the high-tech Zhangjiang Park in Pudong clashed with police on Thursday after authorities said the complex would be turned into an isolation site. Footage posted online shows police abducting residents while a woman begs them to stop, and passersby shout, “Why are you hitting old people? Let them go! ”
In this photo, published by the Xinhua news agency, workers are taking care of the site of a temporary hospital under construction at the National Exhibition and Congress Center in Shanghai on April 8. Medical workers in protective suits are touring a makeshift hospital on April 9th. A video of Shanghai residents resisting being taken away by police in protective suits was released on Chinese social media on April 14. (Ding Ting / AP, China Daily / Reuters, UGC / AP)
The rest of the city must stay at home on orders from community officials and police. Drones fly from above, communicating with the public or sometimes delivering drugs to the elderly – adding to the ominous emptiness of the city on pause.
Only health workers, drivers and volunteers can move freely. Robots patrolling the streets encourage residents to disinfect their homes, avoid gatherings and “stay civilized.”
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The measures, which began in stages in late March before expanding across the city in early April, gave residents and staff some time to prepare. There is a shortage of food in the city. Restrictions have led to bottlenecks in the supply chain and strained neighborhood commissions that are responsible for caring for inmates. Many like Lee had to rely entirely on themselves to figure out how to survive.
“We were unaccounted for and many, including my parents, felt betrayed. It was painful for them to wake up to the fact that we were left alone, “Lee said.
A volunteer wearing personal protective equipment on April 12 is inspecting vegetables that will be distributed to residents of a complex in Shanghai. A volunteer in Shanghai transported bags of vegetables delivered by the government during a blockade across the city. Volunteers leave food supplies in Shanghai on April 9. (Liu Jin / AFP and Qilai Shen / Bloomberg)
The reality does not coincide with the official story of enough food and medical supplies. Wu Paying, a 27-year-old business development worker, spotted an article in WeChat last week that presented her neighborhood as a success story. Local party propaganda praised the Changfeng Xincun neighborhood committee, where Wu lives, for sending 25,000 food parcels a day to 100,000 residents in its western Shanghai district.
But in the last two weeks, Wu said, she has received only one package: a plastic bag containing a carrot, cabbage, yams and a few chicken wings that have already spoiled.
Residents tried to pass on their complaints to employees. When Shanghai Communist Party leader Li Qiang visited residents this week, videos posted on social media showed elderly women confronting a senior official over food shortages.
Others show residents shouting from their windows, “Save us. We don’t have enough to eat. “
This “screaming warrior” is praised today on WeChat for shouting at visiting staff that they can’t get food, they can’t order food, they don’t know what’s going on. He literally made his voice heard throughout the community. #Shanghai pic.twitter.com/4r60gBegQ5
– Manya Koetse (@manyapan) April 13, 2022
Wu, like many Shanghai residents, has to rely on “group buying” to team up with neighbors to deliver wholesale supplies and orders. As the leader of this effort for more than 350 people in her residential complex, Wu must check vendors, negotiate prices and ensure that delivery staff have the right passes to travel to the complex and drop off goods.
“I have to ask for connections every day to buy rice or hazmat suits,” she said. “Why are we the ones with these responsibilities?” She said. Wu shared screenshots of his latest efforts to provide rice packs purchased a week ago to the group.
In Paying
April 11 10:02 AM
Brother Chen, good morning, may I have the opportunity to send him today?
Good morning, Mr. Chen. Will you ship our products today?
Junliang
April 11 10:22 AM
The current situation is that there is a serious lack of capacity and we are actively trying to find a way. It will be notified in advance.
The current situation is that our delivery capacity is very limited. We do our best to find a solution. I will let you know in advance when it’s your turn.
In Paying
April 12, 10:24 a.m.
It was said on Sunday that it should be received today or tomorrow, I’m really worried about you helping me catch it. Our street is already in the complaint of the State Department. Because so far only 4/2 of the deliveries have been received once, only one radish, one yam and one cabbage. Indeed, many older people will be left without food.
You said on Sunday that we should be able to receive the goods today or tomorrow. Please help us to hurry with the shipment. Our neighborhood has already filed a complaint with the State Council. Because from April 2 we received only one package of consumables with one carrot, one yam and one cabbage. Indeed, many older people will starve to death.
In Paying
April 12, 10:25 am
Our Changfeng Street in the Putuo district has always been ignored by the government
The government ignores our neighborhood, Changfeng Street in Putuo District.
I don’t know what the other streets are like
I don’t know how it is in the other neighborhoods.
But our streets are really in crisis
But our neighborhood is in big crisis.
In Paying
April 12, 10:30 a.m.
Thank you very much, we are really urgent at the moment
Thank you very much. It is really very urgent for us at the moment.
In Paying
April 12, 3:22 p.m.
Ashley Chi, a 28-year-old product manager at a Shanghai technology company, said her neighbors left supplies outside their doors for each other – she left extra sanitary napkins out of hers – and exchanged them. Chi recently changed about a cup of soy sauce to five liters of bottled water.
“Initially he wanted to pay me, but who needs money now? I need water! ”She said.
On Monday, Shanghai officials said coronavirus-free areas over the past 14 days could begin to allow people to leave their complexes. But the messages were mixed on the ground: some residents were still instructed to stay put, while others could only leave for an hour.
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Some of those who left their homes were discouraged by what they saw.
There, the 35-year-old financier left his apartment on Tuesday for the first time in 11 days to find that all shops and businesses around him were closed. On the way, he saw several dead cats, street pets that had previously been fed by neighbors, leaving food.
“Seeing these starving animals made me feel depressed,” Tam said, citing only his last name for privacy reasons.
There he saw several dead cats when he managed to leave his house after 11 days.
Across the city, people are disappointed by the lack of training on the part of local authorities and the deviation from targeted controls that once limited the interruption of life. On Thursday, two hashtags, one of which is not related to covid, in the Weibo microblog were …
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