Status: 04/14/2022 10:28 a.m
The situation in Shanghai remains tense: the metropolis is still in a strict lockdown. Cries for help from residents are circulating – they complain of hunger and poor supplies. However, there is no end in sight to the measures.
An old man calls an employee in his neighborhood. He has nothing left to eat, he says. And asks what to do. The recording of this call is circulating on Chinese online networks. The old man is desperate. And so is the employee. He says he doesn’t know what to do. There are many people like the old man.
Cries for help like this keep coming up from desperate people who don’t have enough to eat. Videos of disputes between residents and officials and of smaller protests are also circulating. Not everything can always be verified. Much is quickly deleted by the censorship authorities.
Difficult care for millions of city dwellers
Feeding Shanghai’s more than 25 million residents, most of whom are confined to their homes, remains a major challenge. The authorities are trying to remedy the situation. But there are reports of truck drivers not wanting to drive into Shanghai for fear of not being able to leave the city. There are also too few drivers of delivery services.
The sometimes catastrophic conditions in the central mass accommodation also cause a stir. People who test positive for the corona virus have to go to a state isolation facility and are not allowed to stay at home. Beds are often tightly packed in large halls, and the sanitary facilities are dirty.
More and more doubts about zero Covid policy
The outbreak in Shanghai is the largest in China since the pandemic began in the city of Wuhan two years ago. In view of the highly contagious omicron variant, more and more doubts are being raised about the strict zero-Covid policy of the state and party leadership. But she doesn’t want to deviate from it.
In total, the authorities in Shanghai have registered more than 250,000 corona cases. And more than 20,000 new cases are added every day. The fact that the number of infections is still so high is due to the omicron variant BA.2, explains Wu Huanyu from the Shanghai pandemic authority. The virus variant spreads rapidly and is difficult to detect. Most infections are within families. Because of the average incubation period of three to five days, new infections are only discovered in subsequent rounds of testing.
Situation on site hardly verifiable
Officially, there have been no deaths related to Covid-19 in the city. Reports that numerous people are said to have died in old people’s homes cast strong doubt on this representation. Cases of people being denied medical treatment because they were not allowed to leave their homes are also reported.
In addition, several people have apparently taken their own lives. The cases are difficult to verify. Journalists are also not allowed to move freely in Shanghai.
Great economic damage
The entire city has been in lockdown for two weeks, some parts of the city longer. It is unclear how long the exit bans will continue to apply. According to official rules, people are allowed to move around in their neighborhood if there have been no cases there for a long time. However, most of the more than 25 million inhabitants have to stay in their homes.
The lockdown is also causing major economic damage. International companies struggle with broken supply chains. Many companies in the economic metropolis of Shanghai have shut down their production. Almost all shops are closed. The government’s growth target of 5.5 percent for this year seems increasingly unlikely.