Authorities in Shanghai said they are trying their best to improve the distribution of food and essential goods to locked-in residents amid growing public discontent after 11 days of strict Covid restrictions.
Only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery personnel or people with special permission are allowed on the streets.
Many residents are beginning to worry about food and drinking water, as well as obtaining products such as infant formula.
Some have complained on social media about having to wake up at dawn for a chance at booking a grocery delivery, but finding them sold out within seconds.
Others have turned to community WeChat groups to try to bulk-buy fruit and vegetables.
Shanghai has sufficient reserves of staples such as rice and meat, but issues have cropped up in distribution and last-mile deliveries because of epidemic control measures, Shanghai's vice mayor Chen Tong told a news conference today.
He said the city would try to reopen some wholesale markets and food stores and allow more delivery personnel out of locked-down areas.
Officials will also crack down on price gouging, he added.
"In response to the various problems reported by the public, we have been holding meetings overnight to try and figure out solutions," he said.
The number of couriers, who must keep the city's 26 million residents supplied with food, has been whittled down to just 11,000.
Still operating but overloaded services include Meituan and Alibaba's Freshippo online grocery platform and its Ele.me service.
Lockdowns for the city's residents eastern of the Huangpu river began on 28 March, while lockdowns for the rest of the city started on 1 April. The exercise originally was intended to last five days at most.
Shanghai, which has been conducting multiple rounds of testing, reported close to 20,000 new locally transmitted cases yesterday, 98% of which it said where asymptomatic.
However, there are signs that transmission is still happening in spite of the lockdowns. Of its 19,660 asymptomatic infections, 633 involved people who were not under quarantine or who faced control measures, the data showed.
The Shanghai branch of China's Communist Party called on members to "dare show their swords and fight against all kind of behaviour that interferes with and destroys the overall efforts against the pandemic" in an open letter last night.
Social media users have also widely shared outrage over individual tragedies, including the alleged suicide of woman after being cyberbullied for paying too little to a delivery worker, and a healthcare worker beating to death a corgi after its owner allegedly was taken to quarantine.
China's most-populous city has yet to give an indication of when lockdown measures will be lifted, fuelling uncertainty and prompting European businesses and economists to warn about the mounting toll they are having on its economy and attractiveness as an international financial hub.
Shanghai has converted dozens of buildings into quarantine facilities that can house tens of thousands of positive cases.
