Due to the lockdown since the end of March, hardly any couriers drove out of Shanghai. Most of the department stores and warehouses were also closed. Now there are couriers and home deliveries driving back. Volunteer neighbourhood leaders who make group purchases for their neighbourhood in particular play a major role in the supply.

On Saturday, Shanghai reported 3,590 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 19,923 asymptomatic ones. A similar picture remained from Saturday to Monday with 2,417 locally transmitted cases and 19,831 asymptomatic until Friday, Shanghai had a total of 330,000 infections. There were 3 deaths to regret. The Omicron variant has a stronger transmission capacity with a greater proportion of asymptomatic carriers going under the radar, making it more difficult to detect in the early stages of infection. Since the average incubation period for the Omicron variant is only three days, an infected person may not even be able to test positive for the first two days, according to, Chief Epidemiologist Wu Zunyou at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention..

Director Zhang Wenhong of the Shanghai Covid-19 expert panel denies that Omicron is a major flu outbreak, but that it will have serious consequences for unvaccinated and elderly people. According to him, the current dynamic zero COVID strategy is to protect the most vulnerable in pandemic times. In Shanghai, only half of those over 80 are vaccinated. Wu stressed that according to UK and US data, Omicron caused more deaths than the Delta variant when counted over the same period. According to vice premier Sun Chunlian, the city’s fight against the epidemic has already achieved initial results as the transmission rate fell from 2.27 to 1.23. The city has conducted at least nine citywide mass tests on all of its 25 million residents since April 3.

Serious consequence of the Shanghai lockdown since March 28th was that the distribution practically stopped because no courier services were running out and the warehouses remained closed. This anomaly is being repaired, according to the Shanghai Department of Commerce. 42 central e-commerce storages have reopened or 95%, and 779 additional storages or 66% have resumed service, Vice President Liu Min said on Saturday. On Friday, 1011 local supermarkets were back open and the number of staff members increased by 37% compared to a few days earlier. According to Liu, more than 18,000 distributors cross the streets to deliver 1.8 million online orders daily. Help is also coming from outside Shanghai.

Meituan has organized about twenty warehouses to transport vegetables, milk and meat directly to the neighbourhoods. Buur Kunshan provides daily transport to Shanghai and through this channel has JD.com already 4200 tons of daily necessities are distributed to Shanghai. JD.com sends 3,246 carriers and sorters who have been vaccinated three times to Shanghai to help. Suning also sends a group of deliverers to Shanghai. Freshippo distributed more than 60,000 orders to local neighbourhoods and sent 20 tons of groceries to single seniors over 75. Carrefour partners with Dazhong Logistics to serve 300 neighbourhoods. The city’s Commerce Department has deployed 500 logistics vehicles in their partnership with Yonghui, CR Vanguard and Walmart. The two distribution groups Bright and Bailian work together with The Post. At Bailian, 761 supermarkets reopened or 60% of the total and 20% of the staff is already present again. By april 11, 11 provinces and regions had sent a total of 18,000 tons of vegetables and other daily necessities to Shanghai and donated more than 5,400 tons of bread and other food, according to Li Danghui, from the Ministry of Commerce.

An important role in the resupply of the neighbourhoods is played by volunteers who make group purchases for their neighbourhood. Beijing Review lets Cui speak who has already bought 15,000 kg of vegetables, 4,000 kg of rice, 15,000 kg of flour and noodles, 10,000 kfg of fruit, 1,000 kg of meat and 70,000 eggs for the neighbourhood since March 31. Sixthtone gives the example of the two mothers Jasmine Zheng and Xu Yanfeng who were originally online shopping fanatics. Now they spend the entire day ordering food and having it delivered to the nearly 100,000 customers who count on them. Jasmine Zheng is in contact with 2000 colleagues group leaders. Their customers range from several hundred to 10,000. The working model of the group purchase was reworked because before that the pick-up point was usually a local grocer, but with the lockdown pick-up points outside the residential community are unworkable. Now the two themselves organize the distribution to the neighbourhoods and have the special tool Qun Jielong at their disposal. Since distribution prices rose sharply, the neighbourhood leaders hardly make a profit. Everyone involved just wants to help. However, the duo is planning to start a WeChat group when the current state of emergency is over.

The city of Shanghai also plans to allow the factories to resume production this week. The companies are asked to draw up plans for a closed-circuit management, where employees live on site and are regularly tested