China coronavirus: Shanghai residents risk punishment for breaching lockdown, sneaking out at night to barter for food
- The megacity of 25 million people remains under lockdown after almost two weeks as it struggles to contain an outbreak of the Omicron strain
- Residents have banded into barter groups and will trade anything from food items like eggs and fruit to sanitary items, all of which are in short supply
Each night under the cover of darkness, Shanghai resident Zhang Hongyan and her neighbours conduct barter transactions to get essentials which are in short supply due to the city’s coronavirus lockdown.
The residents conduct their bartering at night to avoid being caught outside their homes by authorities who enforce strict penalties for anyone caught breaking lockdown. On Thursday night, Zhang, who lives in the Baoshan district of the city, offered 10 eggs for barter in a WeChat group chat in the hope of receiving some fruit in return. On this occasion she was lucky, one of her neighbours agreed to give her a few apples in exchange.
“It’s not convenient during the day. I’ll leave the eggs at your building gate now and you go get them quickly,” she told the neighbour, named Anan, at 10 minutes to midnight.
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“OK I’ll fetch it and leave the apples there. Non-face-to-face transaction to reduce the risk of infection,” Anan replied.
Things being swapped range from garlic to sanitary towels after residents were ordered to stay at home to curb the city’s worst Covid-19 outbreak to date — driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.
While most households have received some supplies from the government after most of the city went into lockdown from Monday last week, the ancient way of trading has regained popularity within resident compounds as people find supplies running low and delivery services unable to keep up with demand.
On Thursday Shanghai recorded over 21,000 new infections, of which 824 were symptomatic, pushing the total number of cases since March 1 to a new high of 131,000. There is no word from the municipal government yet when it will lift the citywide lockdown.