China: Citizens rush to get food in Shanghai as supermarkets close amid COVID lockdown

As COVID-19 cases continue to explode in Shanghai, China's second-largest metropolis, millions of people have been confined at home under a sweeping lockdown. Food has become a topic of concern for many in the Chinese city. Most supermarkets in China have been instructed to remain closed, which has escalated the food shortage. According to SCMP, many residents are currently waking up at 6 a.m. in the hopes of ordering vegetables and meat online before supplies run out. 

The rush to get fresh food has now become a part of normal life for Shanghai residents under lockdown, and due to this, a rap titled 'Scrambling for Vegetables' has become an internet hit with them in the last week, SCMP reported.  

Furthermore, videos have been surfaced from some residential districts in Shanghai that feature people screaming, “we are starving to death, we haven't eaten for a very long time". 

According to the Associated Press, on March 28, Shanghai's 26 million residents had entered a two-stage lockdown, with citizens of the eastern Pudong region being able to leave their houses on Friday, while their western Puxi neighbours began their own four-day isolation phase on Sunday. Despite assurances, millions of people in Pudong remain restricted to their homes amid complaints about food supplies, medicine availability, as well as health services. 

All citizens of Shanghai have undergone a nucleic acid test amid COVID lockdown

Apart from this, as the city battles one of the nation's most severe outbreaks of COVID-19, in Shanghai, all citizens have undergone a nucleic acid test on Monday, the largest effort of its type in any city in China and the globe. According to the Global Times, local health officials had claimed that the city had finished the "mission impossible" of sampling at 7 p.m., ahead of time, with the support of more than 38,000 health professionals from throughout the country. 

The objective of this nucleic acid testing in Shanghai, according to specialists, is to assist the city to regain its vibrant zero-COVID conditions. The experts further stated that the findings of this nucleic acid test would indicate the efficiency of the preventive measures implemented in Shanghai over the last week or two, as well as what actions the city will take in the upcoming days. 

In addition to this, Shanghai has recorded 425 verified cases, while 8,581 asymptomatic domestically transmitted infections on Monday, the city's greatest daily rise since the outbreak commenced, increasing the total number of COVID-19 illnesses to above 60,000, Global Times reported.  

Meanwhile, Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played an effective role in Shanghai, according to Fang Min, president of Shuguang Hospital, which is associated with Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. TCM has been utilised in the treatment of 98% of COVID-19 cases in the city, and 21 million shipments of TCM have been dispersed to communities across the city, as per Global Times.

(Image: AP/ Pixabay)