‘Corona Circulation Lockdown’ An empty vegetable stand at a supermarket in Shanghai▶ Click here for a larger view
At lunchtime on the 30th, there was a queue of several tens of meters in front of a small and medium-sized supermarket in Changning District, Shanghai, China, where a ‘circulation lockdown’ is in progress due to the spread of Corona 19.
The crowd at the supermarket entrance was overcrowded, and the staff was only allowing new customers to enter as many as the number of shoppers leaving. I waited 10 minutes to enter the store, but there were not many items available at the supermarket that had already been swept away by many people.
There was nothing on the vegetable and fruit stand with a sign saying, ‘Here are fresh vegetables and fruits, except for two pears in a perforated pack.
Most of the space next to the meat stand was also empty, so pork, the most consumed Chinese food, was sold out, with only a few beef and chicken remaining.
This is happening in most supermarkets in Shanghai recently as the citizens of Shanghai, which has become the city where the spread of Corona 19 is the most severe in China since the Wuhan outbreak in 2020, are ‘panic buying’.
The previous day, 5,982 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in Shanghai. It is the first time since the Wuhan outbreak in 2020 that there have been so many new infections in a Chinese city.
Citizen Zhou said, “The ability to buy something to eat every morning determines the psychological state of the day, and what you buy determines the nutritional content of the day.”
The panic buying phenomenon was triggered in Shanghai, which was relatively calm despite the increase in the number of corona19 infections, when the city lockdown was announced on the night of the 27th.
Even when the number of new infections per day exceeds 1,000, the Shanghai city government has publicly stated that there is no ‘city blockade’, expressing its will to adhere to ‘precise quarantine’ centered on the areas where infected people were found.
Pork disappeared from supermarket▶ Click here for a larger view
However, on Sunday, the 27th, late at night, after 10 p.m., an urgent announcement was made to implement a circular city blockade by dividing Shanghai in half for eight days from the dawn of the next day.
Immediately after the announcement, in the Pudong area, many citizens poured into the streets and rushed to the opened supermarket, causing chaos.
This circular lockdown will be held in Pudong on the east side of the Huangpu River for 4 days from the 28th to the 1st of next month, and in Pudong on the west side of the Huangpu River for 4 days from the 1st to the 4th of next month. The lockdown began a few hours after the announcement.
Citizens who did not prepare enough food and daily necessities in advance, believing the city’s promise that there would be no lockdown, were in a difficult position right away.
In such a chaotic situation, residents of Puxi, where the lockdown begins on the 1st of next month, are heading to supermarkets every day to buy groceries in large quantities.
In fact, in China, there are several online platforms where you can easily order fresh ingredients with just a few touches of your smartphone, such as Hema Xian, an online and offline supermarket operated by Alibaba, and Ding Dong Mai Chai, a local fruit and vegetable purchase and delivery service. But as demand outstrips supply, these platforms are almost paralyzed.
Due to the limited number of deliverables per day, a ‘click war’ is taking place in Hemaxian Province at 7 am, when reservations are accepted every day. Almost immediately at the start, a ‘cannot purchase’ notice appears, so many regular customers have completely given up on using it.
First, the difficulties of the residents of Pudong, who have been quarantined for four days, are even greater.
Mr. Yao, an office worker who lives in an apartment in Pudong New District, was classified as a ‘contact of a close contact’ before the announcement of the lockdown and had been living in self-quarantine.
“I couldn’t do anything because I couldn’t leave the house due to self-quarantine,” he said. “Fortunately, there was some food at home.”
The panic buying of Shanghai citizens reflects distrust of the authorities, which are touted as ‘the government will provide enough food, so there is no need to stock up’.
With the influx of the highly contagious Omicron mutation as a trigger, Corona 19 has been spreading rapidly in almost all regions of China since March, and dissatisfaction with the government’s measures for livelihood is being strongly expressed, especially in Jilin Province, where the lockdown has been prolonged.
In the case of Changchun, the central city of Jilin Province, the lockdown has already entered its third week.
The city authorities are basically letting residents stay at home and then delivering food and medicines, but complaints are growing that the delivery of goods is not being done on time due to a shortage of delivery personnel.
In addition, when Changchun City recently closed all three grocery wholesale markets where infected people were found, complaints from residents exploded online.
On the 29th, the Changchun city government, which is working hard to manage public sentiment ahead of the 20th Party Congress this fall, a major political event that will declare President Xi Jinping’s long-term reign in power, said on the 29th, “There is a problem with the supply of food due to the closure of the wholesale market and the shortage of quarantine and supply personnel.” He apologized publicly and set out to appease the angry public.
Shanghai supermarket where you have to wait in line to enter▶ Click here for a larger view
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