People in
“It’s not easy to keep this up,” said Zhang, who starts shopping online at
“We read on the news there is (food), but we just can’t buy it,” she said. “As soon as you go to the grocery shopping app, it says today’s orders are filled.”
The complaints are an embarrassment for the ruling
On Thursday, the government reported 23,107 new cases nationwide, all but 1,323 of which had no symptoms. That included 19,989 in
Complaints about food shortages began after
Plans called for four-day closures of districts while residents were tested. That changed to an indefinite citywide shutdown after case numbers soared. Shoppers who got little warning stripped supermarket shelves.
City officials apologized publicly last week and promised to improve food supplies.
Officials say
“Shanghai’s battle against the epidemic has reached the most critical moment,” Chen said at a news conference, according to state media. He said officials “must go all out to get living supplies to the city’s 25 million people.”
At the same event, a vice president of
Another online grocer, Dingdong, said it shifted 500 employees in
Li Xiaoliang, an employee of a courier company, complained the government overlooks people living in hotels. He said he is sharing a room with two coworkers after positive cases were found near his rented house.
Li, 30, said they brought instant noodles but those ran out. Now, they eat one meal a day of
The local government office "clearly said that they didn’t care about those staying in the hotel and left us to find our own way," Li said. "What we need most now is supplies, food."
After residents of a
The government says it is trying to reduce the impact of its tactics, but authorities still are enforcing curbs that also block access to the industrial cities of
While the
Some large factories and financial firms are having employees sleep at work to keep operating. But Schoen-Behanzin said with no timetable to end lockdowns, “some workers aren't volunteering any more.”
Residents of smaller cities also have been confined temporarily to their homes this year as Chinese officials try to contain outbreaks.
In 2020, access to cities with a total of 60 million people was suspended in an unprecedented attempt to contain the outbreak. The ruling party organized vast supply networks to bring in food.
A resident of the Minhang district on
Now, vegetables are available online but meat, fish and eggs are hard to find, Chen said. She joined a neighborhood “buying club.” Minimum orders are
“Everyone is organizing to order food, because we can’t count on the government to send it to us,” Chen said. “They’re not reliable.”
A message from a viewer of an online news conference by the city's health bureau challenged officials: “Put down the script! Please tell leaders to buy vegetables by mobile phone on the spot.”
“I can’t get anything for two or three days in a row,” said Gao, 29.
Zhang said some of her neighbors have run out of rice.
“The government told us at the beginning this would last four days,” she said. “Many people were not prepared.”
AP researchers
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