■ Source: SCMP
“Good afternoon everybody
SHANGHAI — Frustrated and locked down, residents of Shanghai have taken to social media to vent, questioning the practicality of persisting with China's zero-tolerance approach to Covid-19 in its most populous city.
In the home to 26 million people, videos and images of crowded quarantine centres were shared as authorities extended lockdown from the east of the city to parts of the west, posting calls for help with medical treatment and purchasing food.One video widely shared on Chinese social media featured an angry exchange between a group of patients and hazmat suit-clad healthcare workers at the vast Shanghai World Expo Centre — temporarily converted into a giant quarantine facility."We demand an explanation!" the person filming the video shouts in the video."There's repeated cross-infection here, there's no water in the toilet, poo and pee everywhere, it's all a mess!"Others expressed frustration over access to medical care and complained about difficulties in purchasing food as delivery services were overloaded. Authorities have pledged to keep food supply channels open and ensure people receive essential medical treatment.
A man surnamed Cao told Reuters his father had not been able to access dialysis treatment after the hospital he usually visits was shut due to Covid-19 controls.
Shanghai authorities apologize to the public
The Shanghai government admitted on Thursday it was ill prepared for the latest wave of Covid-19 infections and had failed to meet all the needs of areas under tough restrictions as the financial hub recorded another surge in cases on the fourth day of partial lockdown.Ma Chunlei, secretary general of Shanghai municipal government, said in a press briefing on Thursday morning the government had handled the wave of infections poorly and it accepted all criticism from residents.“Our awareness of the highly infectious and insidious Omicron mutant strain is not sufficient, and our preparation for the significant growth of infections was not comprehensive,” he said.He added that some of the necessary prevention and control measures were not in place and that the government had not been “thoughtful enough” in ensuring residents in sealed off areas had access to supplies.“We sincerely accept your criticism and are working hard to improve it,” Ma said.
The city of 25 million people continued to record a high infection toll, with 355 local Covid-19 cases and 5,298 asymptomatic local infections reported on Thursday, the fourth day of lockdown in areas to the east and south of the Huangpu River that runs through the city.
Medical resources have been strained and basic food supplies limited, prompting residents to turn to social media in desperate appeals for help, including for patients unable to get timely dialysis or whose chemotherapy was delayed for days because they were confined to the residential area.Wu Jinglei, director of Shanghai Health Commission, acknowledged that residents found gaining access to healthcare difficult but said current medical resources could not meet all the needs of patients.
“The ambulance service is under tremendous pressure,” he said. “Although we have taken emergency measures to increase capacity and increased the number of emergency vehicles on duty by nearly 50 per cent and tripled the workload, we still cannot fully meet the needs of all patients.”Wu said the commission was allocating medical resources to support dialysis for kidney-failure patients in the lockdown areas. Doctors have also been urged to prescribe up to three months of medications to reduce the need for visits.