BEIJING (AP) — Some Shanghai residents were allowed out of their homes Tuesday as the city of 25 million eased a two-week lockdown Tuesday after videos posted online showed what was said to be people they ran out of food breaking into a supermarket and cries for help.
The number of people allowed out was not immediately clear. The government said some markets and pharmacies would also reopen.
The abrupt closure of most businesses and stay-at-home orders have angered the public over the lack of access to food and medicine. People who test positive for the virus have been forced into sprawling temporary quarantine facilities criticized by some as overcrowded and unsanitary.
Meanwhile, Washington set up a possible new showdown with Beijing by announcing that all “non-emergency US government employees” would be withdrawn from its Shanghai Consulate while consular officials would stay. The Chinese government complained last week after the State Department said diplomats and their families could leave if they wanted.
The unusual severity of Shanghai’s lockdown from March 28 appears to be driven as much by politics as public health concerns.
The fighting in China’s richest city is an embarrassment during a politically sensitive year in which President Xi Jinping is expected to try to break with tradition and win a third five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party.
China’s case numbers are relatively low, but the ruling party is pursuing a “zero tolerance” strategy that has cut off access to major cities to isolate all infected people. Some local officials were fired after being accused of not acting aggressively enough.
The government reported 24,659 new cases as of midnight Monday, including 23,387 without symptoms. That included 23,346 in Shanghai, of whom only 998 had symptoms.
In Shanghai, more than 200,000 cases have been reported but no deaths in the latest wave of infections.
The government eased restrictions by announcing that residents of Shanghai neighborhoods who have not had cases for at least two weeks will be allowed to leave their homes from Tuesday. He said they could go to any other area that also had no new cases during that time.
Shanghai has 7,565 such “prevention areas,” according to city officials cited by state media. They did not give details of how many people were affected.
People in 2,460 “control areas” with no new cases in the past week have been allowed to leave, but cannot leave their neighborhoods, the government said. Residents are prohibited from leaving their homes in “quarantine areas” that have had infections in the past week.
The abrupt closure caught Shanghai households by surprise, prompting complaints that they were left without access to food or medicine and unable to care for elderly relatives living alone.
The government distributed packages of vegetables and other food for a few days at least twice to some households. Others said they received nothing.
A video that circulated online on Saturday showed what the caption said: people in Songjiang district breaking into a supermarket and taking boxes of food.
Another showed people raising their fists in the air in front of what appeared to be government employees wearing white hooded protective suits. A third showed what he said were apartment dwellers, barred from leaving, shouting calls for help through their windows.
The Associated Press was unable to find the source of the videos or verify when and where they were filmed. The supermarket video was tagged with an account number from China’s popular Sina Weibo social media service, but the video does not appear on that account.
The ruling party requires Chinese social media operators to censor and remove videos and other posts on banned topics. Social media and online bulletin boards are full of complaints about the closure of Shanghai and orders for food or medicine. It is not clear how many others could have been eliminated.
Complaints about food shortages began after Shanghai closed segments of the city on March 28.
The plans called for four-day district closures while residents were tested. That changed to a citywide indefinite lockdown after the number of cases spiked. Shoppers given little warning stripped supermarket shelves.
City officials publicly apologized and promised to improve the food supply. Despite that, residents said online groceries often sold out early in the day or were unable to deliver. Online trading companies said they added hundreds of employees to boost deliveries.
Last week, the State Department advised Americans not to travel to China due to “arbitrary application” of local laws and anti-virus restrictions. He cited the risk of “parents and children being separated.”
China’s Foreign Ministry criticized that announcement as a “groundless accusation against China’s epidemic response.”
On Tuesday, a statement from the State Department said the US government decided “it is best that our employees and their families be reduced in number” due to “changing circumstances on the ground.”
Reference-apnews.com