Thursday, April 14, 2022
begin quote from:
https://nationworldnews.com/the-city-of-25-million-builds-up-pressure-as-shanghai-remains-locked-inside/
The city of 25 million builds up pressure as Shanghai remains locked inside
The distant echo of a megaphone flashes most mornings from the narrow street where I live in Shanghai, calling me and my neighbors from our homes for our mandatory COVID-19 test.
Mask on and cell phone in hand, I step outside before volunteers in hazmat suits have time to knock. If you miss the call, they will keep on knocking until someone answers. No one is exempt.
The sprawling city of 25 million people is at the center of China’s efforts to stamp out the country’s largest COVID-19 outbreak so far. No one is allowed to leave our residential premises, even to buy food, which means we are dependent on government or private delivery drivers thinning out from the huge demand. This is creating enormous strain on the system – and for many, the restrictions are more troubling than the threat of the virus.
Outside my apartment, dangerous community workers lead me and my neighbors in a socially distancing procession near our closed front gate, the only time I’m allowed out of my apartment . But they never take us out of the gate – it’s been sealed with padlocks and bicycle locks for more than three weeks.
As we walk to a table covered in a blue tent, where doctors are waiting for tests, I feel a surge of emotions—relief at being out in the fresh air and spring sun, and anxiety—what What if I test positive? I worry about being sent to Shanghai’s spartan quarantine system for days or weeks. Images of the facilities showed I could cope with cramped, unhygienic conditions with overflowing dustbins, running water, and dirty communal toilets.
But I am more uneasy about what could happen to my rescue dog president.
What happens to your pet if you test positive remains a troubling gray area with no obvious solution. Horror stories circulate online about pets being left behind and recently killed with a shovel by a man in a hazmat suit.
If I am taken into quarantine, I hope that one of the local veterinarians or community groups can be allowed to care for my dog. I’ve packed a small bag of speaker essentials that sits by the door in case someone is able to take them inside when I’m sent away.
But that is hardly possible. Apart from the essential workers, the whole city is like me, locked down and locked in.
scrambling for extra food
In late March, before the city ordered a stay-at-home order, panicked shoppers left grocery store shelves empty.
Now desperation has set in.
The video showed people shouting at community workers, begging them for food and saying they were starving. Others show a crowd at a quarantine food distribution site fighting over a short delivery of vegetables.
In my community, the government delivers food once every few days. Delivery ranges from a box of vegetables and eggs to a vacuum-sealed piece of pork or some Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Handouts alone are not enough to feed one person, let alone the whole family, for more than a day or two.
I ration my food and make the most of what comes in the box and any additional food that my community is able to source. Lately, most of my meals have been a combination of eggs and carrots—you’ve got to be creative.
Many communities have set up group chats with their neighbors on the Chinese social media app WeChat. Sometimes there are offers to buy group meals, but the options are limited. Shops are closed, delivery drivers are down, supply chains are disrupted.
A neighbor of mine writes in the chat group, “What should I do if I don’t have food?” Community Contact writes back, “No group buying – vegetables are in short supply now.”
I spend most of my lockdown days trying to place multiple grocery orders, hoping one would arrive. Last week, I was woken up after midnight by a call – one of my orders actually showed up.
I immediately tried to help catch my community liaison officers, but they were asleep after a long day’s work. So, I had to leave groceries sitting in a box on the street outside campus by 6 a.m., in the hope that nothing had been taken away or spoiled by the time I could get to it. Thankfully it was still morning.
Some of us have resorted to creating contactless “drop spots” where we swap out food for a change in our diet.
For example, after walking back home from a community COVID-19 test, a neighbor of mine sent me a message: He had left a block of cheese in the shaded spot on top of his bicycle. When I later went out for my COVID-19 test, I took his paneer and replaced it with two oranges. He then collected the fruit when he was let out for his next test.
Officers are seen listening to complaints. Over the weekend, Shanghai’s vice mayor Zong Ming apologized to city residents for failing to meet expectations at a news conference. And on Monday, officials promised to ease the lockdown in some areas.
Anger and an uncertain future
Ahead of Wuhan, I have covered every aspect of this outbreak in China. As the central government went ahead with its “zero-Covid” policy, the initial spread and the alleged cover-up was forgotten by the public.
For two years, China largely succeeded in keeping the virus out by closing borders and introducing an increasingly sophisticated contact tracing system that uses smartphone technology to track us and potential exposure to the virus. uses.
The authorities have conducted mass testing in cities with a population of millions with capabilities to process them quickly. And they have relied mostly on targeted, snap lockdowns – closing down a neighborhood, office or even a shopping mall with a confirmed case or close contact inside – to try to avoid locking down entire cities. in order to minimize the social and economic damage.
In recent months, entire cities have gone into lockdown – including Xi’an, Tianjin and Shenzhen – but nothing on the scale of Shanghai, where adrenaline and a rush to contain the virus have replaced communal spirit with fatigue, despair and despair. Has been given. ,
From the confines of my 600 sq ft apartment, I ask myself, is this really happening? In Shanghai, of all places?
A modern city of skyscrapers and restaurants, Shanghai once rivaled metropolitan centers such as Paris and New York. Now lakhs of residents are scrambling for basic necessities from the confines of their homes.
This is not to say that life in Shanghai will not resume as it was, but the actions of the past several weeks – or inaction – coupled with the continued uncertainty over the past two years may suddenly reveal drastic restrictions in the name of COVID-19 prevention. For, many people feel a constant connection to this city and to each other.
On Monday, the US State Department ordered non-essential consular personnel and their families to leave the city, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases and the impact of restrictions put in place to contain it.
Most expats I know have either already left or are determined to move out. The Reason? “It’s not sustainable” is a common refrain.
mentally. emotionally. physically. it.
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