BEIJING (AP) – Shanghai yesterday discharged over 11,000 recovered COVID-19 patients and health authorities emphasised that they must be allowed to return home despite the lockdown that has severely restricted movement in China’s largest city.
“We hope their family and community will not worry about them or discriminate against them,” said Director of the Shanghai Health Commission Wu Jinglei.
The city of 26 million people reported 1,006 confirmed infections and nearly 24,000 asymptomatic cases in the last 24 hours. Shanghai has been under lockdown since March 28, and authorities said on Saturday that the strict measures would be lifted in areas with no new cases in the last 14 days following another round of mass testing.
Shanghai authorities said that they have secured daily supplies for residents from online platforms, according to state-owned newspaper Global Times, following complaints about deliveries of food and other basic necessities as the lockdown enters its third week.
Residents have resorted to group buying of groceries because they are not allowed to leave their buildings. Posts circulating on social media platforms such as Weibo also show that some residents have not been able to have their food orders delivered, while others posted online that they’re running out of food. Some people said that as soon as you go to the grocery shopping app, a day’s orders are already filled.
According to the Global Times, platforms such as JD.com as well as Alibaba’s Ele.me delivery apps are working with authorities to ensure that everyone has access to vegetables, fruits and other produce.
Shanghai highlights the soaring human and economic cost of China’s ‘zero-COVID’ strategy that aims to isolate every infected person.
