Li Moyin, 34, was among those confined to their homes. She lives with her parents, both in their 70s, in the Putuo district of Shanghai, where she has been restricted since March 27, working as a part-time translator and trying to provide enough groceries for their household. For Lee, who grew up in Shanghai, seeing the once-bustling financial hub – once thought by residents as a model for balancing Covid prevention with normal life – turn into a ghost town was troubling. The story goes on under the ad The story goes on under the ad Empty roads in Shanghai on April 5, during a gradual blockade due to Covid-19. A worker wearing personal protective equipment rides a bicycle on a road during a lockdown for the Covid-19 in Shanghai’s Jing’an district on April 8. (Qilai Shen / Bloomberg and Hector Retamal / Getty Images) Speaking via text and video lockdown with her boyfriend under lockdown elsewhere in the city, Li has spent hours debating whether such drastic measures are necessary, especially when the majority of Shanghai patients are asymptomatic. Lee’s friend – who is from Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first diagnosed and 11 million people experienced an unprecedented 76-day lockdown – backed the fast and hard lockdown. [A year after Wuhan coronavirus lockdown, trauma runs deep in China’s ‘Hero City’] The prospect of a long-term lockdown has begun to affect emotionally. A widely circulated video shows residents of a large apartment complex in Putuo screaming from their balconies. In the video, a passerby is heard saying: “This whole building is screaming. … What is the main problem? “People do not know how long this situation will last.” According to government rules, the nearly 300,000 residents who have been tested positive for coronavirus since early March and their close contacts should be sent to mass quarantine centers or hospitals, depending on the severity of their symptoms. Many residents fear it more than they can catch the virus, reluctant to confine themselves to the rapidly built temporary rural hospitals, some of which have changed schools or construction sites. They often do not have doctors and nurses on hand or private sleeping or bathing facilities. Videos have shown people fighting over tight supplies, trying to block leaks and in some cases trying to escape malls. On Thursday, residents of an apartment complex in Zhangjiang High-Tech Park in Pudong clashed with police after authorities said the complex would be turned into a seclusion area. Footage posted on the Internet shows police dragging residents as a woman begs them to stop, and passersby shout: “Why are you beating elderly people?” Let them go! “ In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, workers tend to arrive at the site of a temporary hospital under construction at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on April 8. Doctors in protective suits tour a makeshift hospital on April 9th. A video of Shanghai residents resisting being picked up by police in hazmat suits was released on Chinese social media on April 14. (Ding Ting / AP, China Daily / Reuters, UGC / AP) The rest of the city has to stay home on orders from community workers and police. Drones fly overhead, communicating with the public or sometimes delivering medicine to the elderly – adding to the eerie void of a paused city. Only health workers, delivery guides and volunteers can move freely. Robots patrolling the streets encourage residents to disinfect their homes, avoid gatherings and “stay civilized.” The story goes on under the ad The story goes on under the ad The measures, which began gradually in late March before being extended to the entire city in early April, gave residents and officials some time to prepare. Food shortages are running high across the city. Restrictions have caused congestion in the supply chain and put pressure on neighborhood committees responsible for caring for locked-in residents. Many like Lee had to rely solely on themselves to figure out how to survive. “We were at a dead end and many, including my parents, felt betrayed. “It was painful for them to wake up to the fact that we were left alone,” said Lee. A volunteer wearing personal protective equipment on April 12 controls the vegetables that will be distributed to the residents of a complex in Shanghai. A volunteer in Shanghai carries bags of vegetables handed over by the government during a lockdown across the city. Volunteers leave food supplies in Shanghai on April 9. (Liu Jin / AFP and Qilai Shen / Bloomberg) The reality does not match the official narrative of plenty of food and medical supplies. Wu Peiying, 27, who works in business development, commented on an article on WeChat last week that presented her neighborhood as a success story. The party’s local propaganda has praised Wu’s Changfeng Xincun neighborhood committee for sending 25,000 food parcels a day to its 100,000 residents in western Shanghai. But in the last two weeks, Wu said, she has received only one package: a plastic bag containing a carrot, a cabbage, a yam and some spoiled chicken wings. Residents tried to bring their grievances to officials. When Shanghai Communist Party leader Li Qiang visited residents this week, videos posted on social media showed elderly women confronting a senior official for lack of food. Others showed residents shouting from their windows: “Save us. “We do not have enough to eat.” This “shouting warrior” is being praised on WeChat today for shouting at visiting officials that they can not get food, they can not order food, they do not know what is happening. He literally makes 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 the “group market” to work with neighbors to procure and order in bulk. At the forefront of this effort for more than 350 people in her residential home, Wu must verify vendors, negotiate prices, and ensure that delivery workers have the right folds to travel to the complex and deliver goods. “Every day I have to ask for links to buy rice or hazmat suits,” he said. “Why do we have these responsibilities?” he said. Wu shared screenshots of its recent efforts to secure rice packages it bought a week ago for the team. Wu Paying April 11 10:02 a.m. Brother Chen, good morning, can I have a chance to send it today? Good morning, Mr. Chen. Will you ship our products today? Junliang April 11 10:22 a.m. The current situation is that there is a serious lack of capacity and we are actively trying to find a way. It will be informed in advance. The current situation is that our capacity is very limited. We are trying to find a solution. I will let you know in advance when it is your turn. Wu Paying April 12, 10:24 a.m. It was said on Sunday that they should pick it up today or tomorrow, I’m really worried you can help me catch it. Our path is already in the complaint of the State Department. Because so far only 4/2 of the supplies have been received once, only one radish, one yam and one cabbage. Indeed, many seniors are going to run out of food. You said on Sunday that we could pick up the goods today or tomorrow. Help us speed up the mission. Our neighborhood has already made a complaint to the Council of State. Because since April 2 we have received only one package of supplies with a carrot, a yam and a cabbage. Indeed, many older people will starve. Wu Paying April 12, 10:25 a.m. Our Changfeng Street in Putuo district has always been ignored by the government The government is ignoring our neighborhood, Changfeng Street in the Putuo area. I do not know what the other roads are like I do not know how it is in other neighborhoods. But our roads are really in crisis But our neighborhood is in a big crisis. Wu Paying April 12, 10:30 a.m. Thank you very much, we are really urgent right now Thank you very much. It’s really urgent for us right now. Wu Paying April 12, 3:22 p.m. Ashley Chi, a 28-year-old product manager at a technology company in Shanghai, said her neighbors leave supplies outside their doors for each other – she left extra sanitary napkins outside her own – and exchanged between them. Chi recently exchanged about a cup of soy sauce with five gallons of bottled water. “In the beginning he wanted to pay me, but who needs money now? I need water! “He said. On Monday, Shanghai officials said areas without a coronavirus in the past 14 days could begin to allow people to leave their facilities. But the messages were mixed up on the ground: some residents were still instructed to stay put, while others could go outside for just an hour. The story goes on under the ad The story goes on under the ad Some of those who left their homes were disappointed by what they saw. Tam, a 35-year-old financier, left his apartment on Tuesday for the first time in 11 days to find all the shops and businesses around him closed. On the way, he saw several dead cats, street pets that had previously been fed by neighbors leaving food out. “Seeing these starving animals to death made me feel depressed,” Tam said, giving only his last name for privacy reasons. Tam saw several dead cats when he was able to leave his home after 11 days. Across the city, people are expressing frustration at the lack of local government preparation and moving away from targeted controls that once limited the disorder in life. On Thursday, two hashtags, one of which is not related to Covid, on the Weibo microblog were …
