Nearly-empty roads during a phased lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai, China. Photo / Getty
Nearly-empty roads during a phased lockdown due to Covid-19 in Shanghai, China. Photo / Getty
China's strict zero-Covid strategy has brought chaotic scenes to Shanghai, with patients fighting for food and water after being taken to makeshift quarantine centres as authorities on Tuesday extended a lockdown to cover all 26 million residents.
Shanghai is China's largest city to be locked down to date and the extension of restrictions amid surging cases presents a major test for the country's approach to the virus.
Video shared on social media showed dozens scrapping for basic supplies after they were transferred to a quarantine facility in an abandoned school in a southeastern suburb.
Many questioned whether the school in the Nanhui district was suitable to house coronavirus cases.
"The quarantine centre in Nanhui district is so dirty and chaotic. Is this a makeshift hospital for treatment? I'd say more like a wasteground," one social media user commented of the video.
The broader lockdown came after testing found asymptomatic cases surged to more than 13,000. Symptomatic cases fell on Monday to 268, from 425 the previous day.
The city's normally choked roads were all but empty on Tuesday but authorities showed no sign of wavering.
"Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage," Wu Qianyu, an official with the municipal health commission, told a briefing.
Workers unload and move supplies on a street in Shanghai, China. Photo / Getty
"We must adhere to the general policy of dynamic clearance without hesitation."
Shanghai's quarantine policy has already been criticised for separating children from parents and putting asymptomatic cases among those with symptoms. Wu did not comment on the uproar over family separations. Earlier she insisted that children who tested positive had to be kept apart.
The city has set up about 47,700 beds in a number of newly built temporary hospitals in Shanghai, with another 30,000 being readied, state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.
A total of 62 temporary quarantine sites have been designated elsewhere.
Residents under lockdown in their homes have complained of problems with food deliveries since the reintroduction of widespread restrictions last week after the city initially took a more targeted approach.
In a recording of a telephone call circulating online, a resident appears to berate a minor official over the lack of food and other assistance for those in her housing compound.
The neighbourhood committee member, apparently close to tears, answers: "I'm as frustrated as you are. The zero-Covid policy caused all these problems. If there's no new policy soon, Shanghai will collapse."
In Dachang, a district northwest of Shanghai, people said they had not received deliveries of supplies despite hearing of the government sending food to other areas. Private food delivery services were banned as part of the lockdown.
Another recorded conversation purports to show an official telling a resident that he "will be fired tomorrow" if he raises the problem with his superior.
A vehicle carrying medical workers for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing runs in a community in Fengxian District. Photo / Getty
Chen Erzhen, a doctor in charge of one Shanghai quarantine facility, said in an interview with the Communist Party newspaper The People's Daily at the weekend that it was possible that authorities would revise guidelines and allow asymptomatic people to stay home, especially if the number of cases mounted.
Sun Chunlan, vice-premier in charge of Covid prevention, urged grassroots Communist Party organisations to "do everything possible" to help residents solve problems, such as access to medicine, food and water.
More than 20 Chinese cities are under total or partial lockdown, affecting an estimated 193 million people.
