'Eat Only One Meal A Day': Shanghai Residents Struggle For Food Amid Stringent Covid Lockdown

To curb the infection, the government on April 3 deployed thousands of military personnel to Shanghai to assist in the mandatory testing of all 25 million residents for the virus

Shanghai city Lockdown (Getty Image)

New Delhi: Residents in China’s commercial capital Shanghai are reeling under an acute food crisis and struggling to access essentials amid stringent Covid-19 lockdown measures enforced due to spiralling infection in the city and its adjoining areas.

They say that they "only eat one meal a day" and "don't know how to live until May", according to the HK Post as quoted in report by ANI.

The epidemic situation in Shanghai is still in a bad shape, and the number of infected people is still high under the "zero lockdown" policy, according to the publication. China is struggling with the worst wave of infections since the start of the pandemic, driven by the BA.2 sublineage of the Omicron variant, the city is reeling under an acute food crisis.

To curb the infection, the government on April 3 deployed thousands of military personnel in Shanghai to assist in the mandatory testing of all 25 million residents for the virus.

Later, the authorities implemented lockdown for indefinite period meaning that residents are not allowed to leave homes as it reviews results of the mass Covid testing.

Analysts have observed that China would not take the risk of relaxing its zero-Covid stance over concers of outbreak.

On the other hand, health experts have warned that the virus could overwhelm health care systems, and put the elderly, who lag in vaccinations, at risk, according to a CNN report.

Even as it continues with the zero-tolerance approach, there is likelihood of multiple major outbreaks as Omicron spreads, the CNN report added.

Shanghai recorded more than 130,000 Covid cases since 1 March but nobody succumbed to the virus yet and there is only one seriously ill person.

Meanwhile, Wu Zunyou of China's Center for Disease Control said death rates remain minimal as as result of curbing outbreaks early and China's high vaccination rate.

"Compared with overseas, our country's COVID-19 death rate is low because of the various measures to prevent or reduce deaths."

China has offered strong incentives at the time of reporting deaths if it is not attributed directly to Covid if alternative underlying conditions are available.

It is because of this, it becomes impossible to know how many have died from Covid. China also spends lots of time blaming imported frozen food and mail for spreading COVID.

Beijing claims a Zero-COVID policy must be followed because "Omicron can generate a higher mortality rate than Delta during the epidemic". This assertion is verifiably false. Perhaps other reasons are more pertinent to the CCP's choice of a Zero-COVID policy.