Shanghai is still facing a high number of coronavirus infections, and the zero-COVID policy makes residents very limited by the restrictions. We learn that the public mood there is getting worse and worse. from videos posted on social media. Do they reflect the facts? We ask Weronika Truszczyńska – a Polish woman who lives in Shanghai.
- A hard lockdown was announced in Shanghai on April 1. Today the situation looks a bit better, but citizens still have to take into account real difficulties
- In the first ten days of April, I had four PCR tests. Today, however, more and more housing estates are rebelling, because the residents are convinced that the tests carried out in the estate pose a risk of infection – says Weronika in an interview with Medonet
- Another problem is, for example, access to medicines or food products. And there are no places for people who should be quarantined
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
Adrian Dąbek, Medonet: What is the current situation in Shanghai? Do you know how long the lockdown will last?
Weronika Truszczyńska: Shanghai closed for a hard lockdown on April 1, but the worst is behind us. Currently, estates are divided into three categories: lockdown, control and prevention area. The first is housing estates where there have been cases in the last two weeks, the second is where there have been in the last two weeks, and the third is housing with no positives in the last 14 days.
People living in the housing estate marked as lockdown may not leave the apartment, those from the control housing estate may leave the apartment, but must stay within the estate, and residents of the prevention group housing estate may leave, but must only move around the area (but this is not precisely specified in kilometers). The list will likely be updated. Some small shops have already opened yesterday. Many supermarkets were able to start selling online after about a week of lockdown. In the first few days, almost nothing could be ordered, as the licenses to operate in lockdown were literally owned by a few of the largest sellers, whose delivery slots were filling up two minutes after six in the morning (sales started at six).
The whole city is closed?
Not now, but for the first week it was like that. Now about four million inhabitants have been given the opportunity to leave the estate, but there is nowhere to move anyway.
Who is tested and how often?
All the townspeople. At the beginning of the lockdown, tests were carried out en masse almost every two days, then the focus was on those neighborhoods where there were positive cases. I only get antigen tests, which are distributed by neighborhood committees, but in the first ten days of April I had four PCR tests. Today, however, more and more housing estates are rebelling because the residents are convinced that the tests carried out on the estate pose a risk of infection.
You showed on the video that the food was provided by the neighborhood committee. Is it like that all over town? On Twitter, you can see videos of people fighting for food given out by the services.
This is not entirely true. The parcels given out for free by the committees are only a part and it would be hard to live on them only. Group shopping is another option as many companies only supply large orders, which means that to buy chicken wings, for example, you have to find fifty neighbors to buy them with us. Fortunately, the estates are large so it is not difficult. You can also try to buy individual products from smaller businesses, but it is time-consuming. You have to sit on the phone all day and browse chats to know where to buy.
But, sticking to government packages, there was a lot of controversy related to them that caused people to anger. Some committees framed the residents of the estate to pay for parcels, others sold them somewhere to the left. In some estates, people were simply deceived because they did not get anything, so they went out to protest, shouted to give them parcels, because they know that the inhabitants of other estates got them. I received three government packages. The first had vegetables, quite a lot, the second consisted of milk, fruit, biscuits and some meat, the third time it was 2,5 kg of rice and a large bottle of oil. I’m not complaining, I think my committee is doing a great job.
What is the drug situation?
The Shanghai government has previously appealed to doctors to issue prescriptions longer, but it is known that this is not the case. Some drugs run out of lockdown, and then all he can do is contact the committee and hope he will fix the drugs somehow. The problem is that the so-called jiedao (administrative units smaller than the district) is full of affairs. Yesterday, a video was circulating on the web where an elderly gentleman called the committee and said he had no drugs left and wanted to go to the hospital, and the committee employee replied that he had reported the matter to jiedao many times but received no reply. The conversation ends with a sad summary in which the old gentleman says: “So this is what our country looks like …” and the employee replies: “I don’t know why Shanghai has become like this either”. Fortunately, after the conversation was made public, the older man was taken to the hospital.
Do you know what the disease looks like in other regions of China?
Yes, the statistics are released every day and it looks like there are over 25 people in Shanghai every day. infections, and in other cities less than 100. The exception is Jilin Province, which has been cut off for a month and where the outbreak is being extinguished all the time. In the city of Changchun, there are about a thousand a day in this very province.
Explain, please, what the matter of counting the infected looks like, because it is more complicated than in Poland. Official reports only mention symptomatic cases? Because on the WHO website, data from April 10 from all of China say about 2. 826 cases. And asymptomatic infections are counted in the tens of thousands.
That’s right, all over China, COVID-19 cases are classified as asymptomatic and confirmed, and only the latter are published on the WHO website, which I believe to be wrong. Asymptomatic people (or those with slight symptoms) are also positive, and they are also taken to an isolation quarantine facility. They can’t stay home. Around 25 jobs were recorded in Shanghai yesterday. asymptomatic cases and over 2 500 confirmed cases. The former are sent to isolatories and the latter to the hospital.
However, are the authorities considering abandoning such a restrictive policy? It is clearly visible that the inhabitants are already on the verge of enduring them.
It’s hard to say, but you can see that Shanghai is not able to find a place for 200. asymptomatic (so many active cases), so your first step must be to consider home quarantine. There are resources for this. The neighborhood committees could keep an eye on people in quarantine, if they can keep an eye on us now. Here, however, the central government from Beijing stands in the way, because Shanghai specialists supported the end of mandatory isolation in the centers. So we are dealing with a conflict between the central government and the Shanghai government, but also with the current zero-COVID policy and the future of the Chinese economy. At this point, smaller or larger covid restrictions affect regions producing as much as 40 percent. Country’s GDP.
How are you taking it all?
The situation is much better than a week ago, but unfortunately now the Polish internet is burning. High-profile people are eager to share videos allegedly depicting the Shanghai lockdown without any verification. They are often untrue, do not come from Shanghai or their context is different than what is stated. And such sensations only cover the real problems. Like, for example, the aforementioned phone call by an elderly gentleman and a committee employee.
Make a test package for convalescents and check the condition of your body after the disease.
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to the problems of the perineum – a part of the body just like any other. And although it concerns all of us, it is still a taboo subject that we are often ashamed to talk about. What do hormonal changes and natural births change? How not to harm the pelvic floor muscles and how to care for them? How do we talk about perineal problems with our daughters? About this and many other aspects of the problem in a new episode of the podcast.
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