Covid-19: China organizes in Shanghai the largest containment since that of Wuhan

The streets are almost deserted.

“There are only a few police cars and delivery trucks still circulating”, tells France 24 Éric *, a French expatriate in Shanghai, confined to his apartment since Friday April 1.

This weekend, Shanghai, one of China's main economic lungs, extended the ban on leaving their homes to all of its 26 million inhabitants.

Including in the Xuhui district, which is west of the Huangpu River and where Eric lives.

Previously, only half of the city east of this river had been affected, since March 28, by these measures to combat the spread of the Omicron strain of the Sars-CoV-2 virus.

First containment in Shanghai

China had not had to take containment measures of such magnitude since the initial effort in the spring of 2020 to eradicate Covid-19 from Wuhan, the city where the virus was first identified.

The images of soldiers called in as reinforcements to enforce containment measures, of hundreds of volunteers dressed in medical suits who pass PCR tests on the chain also evoke these early days of the fight against Covid-19 in China.

Seen from the West, where the impression of an end to the pandemic is beginning to set in as countries release health pressure one after the other, these shots are above all a reminder that the virus continues to circulate.

>> To read also: "Covid-19: is the end of health restrictions coming too soon in France?"

In China, more than 13,000 new cases of contamination were recorded on Sunday April 3.

An incidence which may seem ridiculous compared to certain European countries such as France, which experiences nearly 130,000 new cases per day.

But for Beijing, which prides itself on having successfully applied a “zero Covid” policy – ​​eradication of the virus rather than control of its spread – this is far too much.

Of the total contaminations in China, more than 8,000 have been recorded in Shanghai.

Another bad news for the Chinese government because until now, "the city had been an exception after going through the pandemic without being hit with specific traffic restriction measures", recalls Éric.

The authorities had succeeded in applying a policy of eradicating foci of infection which had proved very effective until then.

As soon as a case of contamination was identified, the authorities put the entire residence where the patient lived in quarantine.

And in Shanghai, "a residence can be the size of a small town in France", specifies Éric, who lives in a residence with around 4,000 inhabitants.

Group purchases on the Internet

But the Omicron variant got the better of this device.

The health authorities recognized, Sunday March 27, to have been overwhelmed by this mutation of the virus, much more contagious than the original strain of Sars-CoV-2.

The initial solution had been to confine the eastern part of the city first and then, five days later, to lift the restrictions there and impose them on the western part.

It was a way for local authorities to try to minimize the economic impact of this strict confinement.

Shanghai is not only the financial center of China – its stock exchange is the second largest after Hong Kong – but its port is also the largest in the world.

It alone accounts for nearly 20% of all of China's imports and exports.

But this plan did not go smoothly.

The spread of the virus could not be stopped east of the Huangpu River late last week, forcing authorities to opt for a costly total lockdown of the city.

>> To read also: "China's 'zero Covid' strategy, a political and health necessity"

For the population, “it is above all the feeling of uncertainty as to the evolution of the situation which predominates”, affirms Éric.

Shanghai residents have robbed store shelves just in case… and "some of the home food delivery applications no longer work, for lack of products", admits the French expatriate.

In his residence, "we made group purchases on applications that still work," he says.

A team of volunteers then goes down to collect the food and is responsible for distributing the food to all the inhabitants.

This mutual assistance for group purchases is not unique to Éric's residence.

It has also given rise to abuses in certain neighborhoods, especially the most upscale, where residents have literally robbed the stocks of food delivery services, underlines the Financial Times.

Solidarity is not limited to races.

Some applications, such as the WeChat messaging service, have enabled city residents to overcome some of the authorities' shortcomings.

Overwhelmed authorities

This is particularly what happened for the medical services.

“We have not succeeded in offering sufficient guarantees for the well-being of all,” lamented Ma Chunlei, secretary general of the local government of Shanghai, Thursday March 31.

A way of recognizing that the population did not know, for example, which hospitals or clinics continued to receive patients during this period of confinement, says the South China Morning Post.

Very quickly, a group of medical students drew up lists, updated almost in real time, of availability in the various establishments for those who have health emergencies requiring them to travel to a hospital despite confinement.

“WeChat has become an essential tool, if only to stay properly informed,” recognizes Éric.

But these private initiatives cannot solve all the problems caused by this confinement of 26 million people and the multiplication of contaminations.

The authorities thus had to transform public buildings into emergency reception centres.

This is how the two gigantic exhibition centers in the city are now used to accommodate some of the people who test positive.

The city's health authorities have also been strongly criticized for having decided to separate children who tested positive from their parents, Reuters points out.

Photos of crying children in medical centers – the authenticity of which is disputed by authorities in Shanghai – have circulated widely on Chinese social networks like Weibo.

These pictures were quickly censored.

But health authorities have confirmed that a family separation policy exists.

“If one of the parents is also infected, he can accompany the child and take care of him” in a dedicated place “where they will be treated,” said Wu Qianyu, an official of the municipal health services.

But "if the members of the family do not fulfill the conditions of support", that is to say are not contaminated themselves, the children will be separated from their parents, she underlined in front of the press. .

The existence of these disputed measures and the reaction of Internet users demonstrate that the price to pay for the "zero Covid" policy is high.

Especially to deal with a variant as contagious as Omicron.

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