‘I feel no better than a prisoner’: inside Shanghai’s crushing lockdown
Shanghai has put all of its 25 million residents into lockdown, due to a Covid outbreak. It’s the largest city ever to undergo such restrictions. Drone footage of the deserted super-metropolis, shining emptily in the spring sunlight, calls to mind the spring of 2020. And yet for Shanghai’s citizens, there’s no end in sight. On Tuesday, authorities extended the lockdown for an “indefinite” period of time. On April 6, just 322 cases were reported as symptomatic, with a staggering 19,660 reported as asymptomatic. Zero deaths have been reported since early 2020.
On Tuesday, the Qingming festival rolled around. During normal times, it’s a national moment of remembrance, where families bring gifts and offerings to the gravesites of deceased relatives. Now, cemeteries are offering alternative, online services, including virtual tomb visits with digital flowers and candles.
Citizens have been posting on social media about the bizarre things they witness through their windows. “A neighbor is using a drone to try and find their runaway cat,” wrote one anonymous user on Twitter on April 5. “But what’s the plan if they do find it? No clear answer.” In the latest example of Chinese Covid officials killing pets over unfounded concerns they spread the virus, a chilling video of a healthcare worker bludgeoning a corgi to death has gone viral.
Shanghai residents, banned from even going to the grocery store, say they are running out of food. Many can’t order groceries online as all the delivery apps are fully booked, and others say government food drop-offs have been inadequate. “This is what my aunty received,” one young man wrote to me, asking to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions from the state. His extended family all live in Shanghai. He sent a picture of enough food for two people for about three days. “I’m worried about food shortages if lockdown goes on for another 2-4 weeks.”