“It is very difficult to get food”, says Mexican in Shanghai after new confinement due to coronavirus

Shanghai faces its biggest outbreak coronavirus covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and “the issue of food has been one of the most delicate here, especially since the entire city is on lockdown,” Carlos Guzmán, a Mexican who has been living in this region for six years, told El Universal.

“It is very difficult to get food, obviously the demand is very high, because the population is very dense here. Getting water has been difficult. In my experience, it took me almost a week to get it. I boiled it in my house.” narrates Guzmán, who works on “some things with global issues.”

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“There is no longer any delivery service. This week they put in a little more, but the supply chain is completely blocked, the restaurants do not have many supplies. Obviously they don’t have the permits right now to be able to distribute. To do so they have (…) to undergo many checks, many tests”.

Guzman details that “what the government is doing is sending boxes of vegetables a week and the rest is that people look for” the supplies.

This photo taken on April 5, 2022 shows people wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as they transfer food and essential items for residents in Shanghai during the coronavirus lockdown. (STR/AFP).

“Some supermarkets have the permits, some stores can distribute certain things, but since everyone is looking at the applications, they run out very quickly or it also depends on your area. Shanghai It is very big, in my area it has cost me a lot to get something. I’ve been eating only vegetables for two weeks. The sense of food has been a bit complicated for everyone, for all levels”.

At the beginning of March the closures began, he says, but “not for everyone, only where cases began to be detected did they close the department, the tower, in this case there were few and there was talk of few infections.”

But this Wednesday, the number of new cases reported in the city rose to 26,338 on Wednesday, of which 1,189 had symptoms, authorities said.

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“About three weeks ago, four, they began to say that entire subdivisions had to be closed, they closed entire businesses, entire zones or districts, that is, you cannot leave your subdivision, you cannot leave your department,” Guzmán mentions.

The Mexican has been locked up in his apartment for three weeks. The east side of Shanghai was completely closed. “All shops, absolutely everything, except for, I imagine, hospitals and emergency issues, were closed. This means that no one could leave his apartment without any exceptions, then this had a possible duration of five days and then the West side of the city was going to be closed for five days at 100% ”.

Although the original idea was to close for five days, the authorities began to massive PCR tests. “I think we would have about five a week.” And “as many cases continued to be detected, the closure remains total so far.”

Just this Tuesday, the authorities reported that some subdivisions were released. “But let’s say they are one in a million, since Shanghai has 26 million inhabitants, what happens is that for your subdivision or your apartment to be released, in the last seven days, no one must have positive for Covid, but if someone tests positive add 14 days [de aislamiento]”.

Guzmán declares that “the official explanation is omicron bud and since this variant is much easier to catch and there are more asymptomatic cases, it is much more difficult to control it. China The borders have been closed and with very strong controls since March 2020 and until now, before this outbreak, life was 90% normal.”

If you test positive, he adds, “the protocol is that they have to take you to a centralized quarantine, this is also an issue that has been very controversial because the conditions are not the most favorable or the healthiest.”

Source: Elcomercio