As Shanghai, China, enters its third week of strict lockdown, supply shortages, isolation, and the looming threat of quarantine are pushing many residents to the brink..As part of China’s strict ‘Zero COVID’ policy, which aims to completely eradicate COVID-19 through stringent lockdowns, testing, and contact tracing, residents of China’s largest city and main financial hub have been forbidden from leaving their homes for any reason..The city of 25 million people initially went into a two-phase lockdown on March 28, which was promised to last no more than eight days. But those measures were extended after case counts skyrocketed. The city has reported zero COVID-19 deaths since the lockdowns began..Shanghai has implemented widespread, mandatory testing to identify and isolate every COVID-19 case..“Like everyone else I know here in Shanghai, our apartment community is closed because of COVID, with no one allowed in or out, said data/compliance lawyer Jared Nelson on Twitter, who noted that all 6,000 residents of his apartment complex were required to be tested for the disease..With the city’s food markets and grocery stores closed, Shanghai residents must rely on government handouts or delivery apps to receive meat, eggs, and vegetables. But with so many people forced to stay home, the city’s logistical systems have deteriorated..Many of the city’s residents have taken to social media to complain about a lack of food medicine, unsanitary quarantine centres, and prolonged isolation. Others have used their balconies as a space to protest the lockdowns..In one video posted to Twitter, called his local police station to request help for his isolated grandmother. “My grandmother lives alone. Nobody takes care of her. What does she eat? What does she drink? You are driving someone to death,” he says..In Shanghai, anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 must quarantine in a specialized isolation zone. COVID-19-positive children were being separated from their parents until outrage from the public prompted a policy change..On social media, videos have also been shared of residents’ pets being rounded up and slaughtered by health workers. There have also been reports of desperate people leaping from their balconies..On April 11, Shanghai’s government eased lockdowns for 43% of its housing complexes, as they had no positive cases for 14 days..Restrictions in those areas will be further relaxed following another two weeks with no COVID cases..The economic effects of the city’s lockdowns are expected to ripple through a world already struggling from weakened supply chains. Due to a shortage of trucks, containers have been piling up at the port of Shanghai, the world’s busiest container port.
