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| A woman dressed up in a qipao (Chinese dress) waits to get covid-tested. Image source. |
Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:
Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak
On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)
Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown (March 28)
Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government (March 31)
Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid (April 3)
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We continue to be in lockdown!
Here's the updated timeline:
March 16-21: First lockdown. 6 days.
March 23-now: Second lockdown. 15 days and counting.
Nucleic acid tests (conducted by baymax, ie, the workers in white hazmat suits): 10 times (March 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 28, 30, April 4, 6)
Antigen self-tests: 2 times (April 2 and 3)
(The above info is specific to our apartment complex. Other apartment complexes in Shanghai will have a similar situation but not exactly the same.)
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City-wide covid test on April 4
April 4 was the big day, where all 25 million residents of Shanghai were covid-tested.
20,000 medical staff came to Shanghai from other Chinese cities to help us. (I don't think they all arrived on the same day, I think some probably had already come earlier during this outbreak.) There were a lot of posts on WeChat about it, the general feeling is like "It's great that the other cities are coming to help us, just like Shanghai sent doctors to help Wuhan in 2020. We all help each other. Let's show them our Shanghai hospitality."
Also, on April 4, there was a trend where a lot of people dressed up or wore costumes for the covid test. A lot of really fun pictures on WeChat of people dressed all fancy, waiting in line to be tested.
[sources for the following images are here, here, and here]
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Free medicine
Today everyone in our apartment complex received some medicine for free: 连花清瘟胶囊 (lián huā qīng wēn jiāo náng). This is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat colds and viruses, that sort of thing. In China they use it to treat covid, and they say it works well, though I'm not really sure, because I've googled and I've found some sites saying "yes there are studies that prove this is effective" and some that are just incredibly suspicious of TCM as a concept, implying that it's useless and has no scientific support and there are side-effects you need to watch out for.
I don't really have the time or energy to keep googling and trying to figure out what the actual facts are on this medicine. My feeling for now is "yeah sure I would take it if I had covid."
Anyway, I am just totally baffled on why they are giving this out for free. Our building leader didn't really give any details about it- like are we supposed to take it now as a preventative thing, or only if we are sick, or what? (Seems like the correct answer is only if you're sick- it's not a preventative thing. Based on my googling.) They gave us 2 boxes of medicine per person- including little Square Root, who is a toddler, and I am SURE that this medicine is not approved for children.
Like, what is going on? I am just so confused about this. The past few days, they have been giving this out to people all over Shanghai for free. WHYYYYY
Is it like, in case you test positive, you have medicine you can take right away? But they why couldn't the apartment management just have a stash of it and then only give it out to people who test positive?
It really looks like the sort of thing that a government would do if they are preparing to move away from a "zero covid" strategy, to an "if you have covid, deal with it yourself at home" strategy.
I am just so boggled by this, because the powers-that-be keep saying "yes we are still doing zero-covid." But at the same time, there is talk on the internet/ social media about "it's time to stop doing zero-covid." (I saw somebody on WeChat point out today, it's interesting that those articles remain accessible on the internet and haven't been censored.)
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Update on the policy for children with covid
Last time, I talked about the policy that children who test positive for covid are taken away from their parents to be treated. Well, the past few days, a lot of parents on WeChat have been unhappy about this policy.
Then a new policy was published: If the child and parent both test positive, then the parent can accompany the child to the quarantine center. But if the child tests positive and the parent tests negative, then they will be separated.
So people on WeChat were like, okay, this is a little bit better, but still not good enough. (And posted things like "if my son tests positive, I will lick his face" like any good parent would.) Also, I heard that the French consulate had a talk with the Shanghai government about it.
Anyway, then yesterday, a new policy was announced: A parent can accompany the child, regardless of whether the parent is positive or negative. Hooray! There was a news article about the new "parents with children" area of the quarantine center at the World Expo building. It said so far, it has received 89 children along with their parents. 80% of the parents also tested positive, and the others "were made aware of the risks and still agreed to come" even though they were negative. (Feels kind of ridiculous to me, reading the "made aware of the risks" thing, because if it's your kid, of course you wouldn't want them to be alone- even if you risk getting covid.)
So this is good news. :) I wonder if it changed because people were mad about it on the internet, or because the French consulate advocated for us.
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Food
Our food situation is still pretty much the same as last time. The normal grocery apps are not working (with the exception of "if you place your order within a 2-minute window that only occurs once a day, when everyone else is also trying to place their orders, there's a chance yours might get through, outside of that 2-minute window there's no chance" umm okay). The only way we can get food is through group buying with our neighbors, which at least will be delivered reliably, but the problem is there aren't really enough options. It's just the foods that Chinese people see as essential.
And, funny story, our building leader said there was meat available to buy, but didn't say what kind, so we ordered it and then when it was delivered, it turned out to be pig's feet. Which I don't want to eat, and Hendrix doesn't like them or know how to cook them either. So, okay. (Fortunately, the other group-buys we ordered meat from turned out to be more "normal" meat that we like. So we have plenty of non-pig-feet meat.)
In the international WeChat groups, I have seen several conversations like "my friend who lives in [wherever] has no food, can anyone help?" and then people reply to say "they have to talk to their neighbors and get in on the group buying." But the problem is the person in question doesn't speak Chinese, or maybe they did get food from the group buys but half of it they didn't know how to cook, so it goes to waste. I feel like this is a big problem for international people who can't cook Chinese food, and who don't live near enough other international people to do a group buy of, say, pasta.
I'm lucky that my husband is Chinese and good at cooking Chinese food.
Also, another update about food: We got more free food from the government. So far, we've gotten free veggies from the government twice, also Spam and noodles, and today we got a big bag of rice for free. So I'm happy about that- actually now we have way too many vegetables.
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Quarantine conditions
On WeChat, I've seen some photos and videos shared of the quarantine places that covid-positive people are sent to. Some of them seem okay, like the World Expo center- there are no showers, and they keep the lights on all the time, so that's not great, but at least it looks clean and organized (or rather, this is the impression I get from the government-approved news sources, so take it with a grain of salt).
But also I saw a video from a guy who was told he had to sleep outside because they didn't have anywhere for him to go. And I saw a post about people who were sent to a quarantine place, and for a whole night they weren't even given any water or food or anything. You have to be careful with social media- can't just believe everything you read- but those ones I believe because they had photos and videos. And so I'm mad about that- how could they send people to a quarantine center that didn't even have resources like water for them to drink?
They should let covid-positive people just stay at home if there's no room in the quarantine center for them. That's what's happening anyway- after you test positive, typically you have to wait 1-2 days for the ambulance to come pick you up and take you to the quarantine center. Why not just let those people wait even longer at home, until you can confirm you really do have a place that can accept them?
So yeah, be mad about that, demand better.
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Some overall opinions
At this point, people are saying Shanghai's outbreak is bigger than Wuhan's was. (Wuhan's was about 50,000 cases.) I can't find a statistic that really shows this directly, because Shanghai doesn't include the "asymptomatic" cases in the official count, and something like 90% of the cases in Shanghai have been "asymptomatic". (Though I have recently learned that when Shanghai says "asymptomatic" they mean "doesn't have pneumonia symptoms, but could still have other symptoms" which is apparently different from how other Chinese cities have defined it, also feels very dishonest/misleading... so what's the deal with that?)
Anyway, it makes me worried, what if they really can't turn this around and get us back to zero cases? Can they really find every single person who has covid, in the entire city of Shanghai? But if it doesn't go to zero, the only other option is it spreads out of control, and I would be scared to live in a society like that. I am not worried about me personally getting very sick from covid, but about living in a society where the medical system is overwhelmed, or where I have to worry about if I can send my son to daycare or not, or having to work from home for months and months and months.
There is talk about China maybe transitioning away from zero-covid, but in my opinion, we are not ready.
Personally, I am fine staying in lockdown for a while. I can manage. But I'm worried about the treatment of covid-positive people, and I'm worried about how hard all the medical workers and delivery drivers and neighborhood volunteers have to work. I'm fine, but the people on the front lines of this are having a much worse time than me.
That's all ~ 上海加油！
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Next post: Lockdown Diaries: I am Okay, Shanghai is Not
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