Shanghai has become a ghost town. 130 million elderly people are now at risk in China.
– This came so suddenly. The epidemic destroys all my plans.
Zhang Lanlan was in the hospital with her newborn baby when she faced a difficult choice this weekend, she told the Chinese newspaper. Sixth note.
Should she and the child leave the building immediately? The alternative was to pay 14,000 crowns to stay in hospital until Friday.
As long as the corona quarantine continues in the part of Shanghai where you live.
After several weeks of cautious measures, this weekend Chinese authorities chose to lock down the country’s largest city from Monday morning. 25 million people should stay at home. To achieve this, the city is divided into two parts:
First, everyone in the eastern part will be quarantined until Friday. Then there are people in the western part who have to close.
A head of cabbage is 90 kroner
The news came as a surprise to most people when it was announced on Sunday. The day before, the local authorities denied this had happened – because the closure would have very significant financial consequences.
The announcement of the Shanghai closure sent people flocking to stores to secure food and other essential goods. In an instant, prices exploded. In social media, people show examples, like one A head of cabbage is 90 kroner. Videos from supermarkets tell of empty shelves and extreme frustration.
“People are behaving like thieves,” Ren Xiaowen, 43, told the Hong Kong newspaper. South China Morning Newspaper. By then, he had just spent half an hour in the chaos of a supermarket in Shanghai.
Videos on social media are also attested panic approach In the apartment complexes where people are now detained. In the videos, you can see how people huddle together and try to slip through the gates outside the blocks where they live.
At the same time, banking and finance workers are trying to keep the economic wheels in gear in China’s response to Wall Street. He now writes that about 20,000 people are sleeping in the workplace so that they can continue to work during the lockdown Reuters.
6000 beds for camping in the exhibition grounds
The reason for the rapid shutdown is likely that infection rates in Shanghai have risen very quickly in recent days. On Sunday, 3,450 new cases were reported in the city. That was 70 percent of all new cases across China, according to the country’s health authorities. On Monday, Shanghai’s numbers were even higher.
There are many emergency solutions. The city’s large convention and exhibition center, known as the Shanghai Expo, has now been transformed into a giant dormitory for people under quarantine. The building can accommodate 6000 people, writes the Chinese News Service CGTN.
In November, the same halls were filled with new, expensive luxury products at the Great Import Expo. Among other things, car manufacturer Tesla showed off several of its electric cars.
Now Tesla’s Shanghai factory is temporarily closed, according to Reuters. And the exhibition hall is full of people on simple camp beds.
To tackle the huge financial costs of shutting down Shanghai, the authorities have already announced major rescue packages. according to South China Morning Newspaper.
The goal is to avoid layoffs, Ruan Cheng of the city’s Reform and Development Commission tells the newspaper.
130 million elderly people are at risk
The shutdown is costing China dearly. But the alternative can be much more expensive. Over the course of two years, zero tolerance for the virus spared older and unvaccinated Chinese people from developing coronary heart disease. The rapid spread of the virus in recent weeks means that many of these vulnerable populations are now at risk.
At least 130 million Chinese over the age of 60 are either not immunized or have received fewer than three doses of the vaccine, according to a study from the University of Hong Kong. He writes for the British newspaper financial times.
This group is at greater risk than others if they contract the virus because they are not fully protected by the vaccine. It’s also unclear whether the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine, which most people have taken in China, is as effective as Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines.
The Chinese are now holding their breath to see if shutting down Shanghai and other cities will be enough to keep the Omicron in stalemate.
And Zhang Lanlan, who became a mother in a Shanghai hospital last week? She chose to pay the costs of staying there until the quarantine period ended.
– I’m lucky compared to the people who will have children now in the next couple of days. She told Sixth Tone that they have to deal with more uncertainty and anxiety.
He adds:
Some have checked into the maternity ward or in hotels outside the quarantine area in advance. Then they don’t have to be trapped in their apartment complexes.
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