Shanghai reported nearly 25,000 locally transmitted Covid-19 infections today, as residents of China's most populous city voiced complaints over food and basic supplies.
Streets of the locked-down financial hub of 26 million people remained largely silent as curbs under the city's "zero tolerance" policy allow only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery personnel or those with special permission to go out.
The curbs have sharply squeezed supplies of food and other essentials. Many supermarkets have been shut and thousands of couriers locked in. Access to medical care has also been a concern.
Online videos show residents struggling with security personnel and hazmat-suited medical staff at some compounds in recent days, with occupants shouting that they need food.
Executives for e-commerce giants JD.com and food delivery service Ele.me attended the city's daily briefing, seeking to convince residents that bottlenecks would ease.
JD.com vice president Wang Wenbo said he understands concerns about delivery speed and that the company is focusing on basic foodstuffs and baby care items.
Ele.me senior vice president Xiao Shuixian said his company had brought 2,800 more delivery workers in over the past week.
Shanghai's case numbers are small compared to some cities globally, but it is battling China's worst Covid outbreak since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in 2019.
Of the local cases reported today in the city, 1,006 were symptomatic while 23,937 were classed as asymptomatic, which China counts separately.
The city has become a test bed for China's elimination strategy, which seeks to test, trace and centrally quarantine all Covid-positive people to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
There is also concern that more cities may soon be in the same situation.
Citizens in several cities expressed anxiety in social media groups that their cities might also go into lockdown, with screenshots shared of maps showing various highways closed across the country.
Many of the closures may be due to local governments implementing their own measures.
A video circulating on social media appeared to show lorries departing Shanghai being scanned with-hand held detectors to make sure no one was trying to leave the city hidden inside.
Reuters was not able to confirm the video's authenticity.
Beijing's municipal government placed a high-risk area under lockdown yesterday after eight Covid cases were confirmed in the last two weeks.
The southern megacity of Guangzhou, home to more than 18 million people, said it would begin testing across its 11 districts after cases were reported on Friday.
'Groundless accusations'
Meanwhile, China has blasted the US for making "groundless accusations" about its Covid-19 policy, as the American consulate let some staff leave the locked-down city.
The US embassy said yesterday it would permit non-essential employees to leave its consulate in Shanghai due to the case surge, warning citizens in China they may face "arbitrary enforcement" of virus curbs.
In response, China expressed "strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the US side's groundless accusations about China's epidemic control policy", according to a statement on the foreign ministry's website.
"This is the US's own decision. However, it must be pointed out that China's epidemic control policy is scientific and effective," said ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, adding that Beijing had lodged "solemn representations" with US counterparts.
"We have full confidence that Shanghai and other places will overcome this round of the epidemic."
