Shanghai housewife Penny Chan has been waking up at 5.30am for the past two weeks, ahead of her husband and two children.
The reason: grocery delivery slots.
“Several apps that we use open new delivery slots only very early in the morning or very late at night, so if I don’t wake up early to prepare, then we might not have fresh food for the day,” she told The Straits Times over the phone.
Half of the financial hub has been put under lockdown amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. The number of daily infections in the city jumped to a record 4,477 yesterday.
The dividing line for the lockdown is roughly along the Huangpu river, with those in the east, including the financial district, now on their third day of the four-day restrictions.
The authorities said the tough curbs were needed to break the chain of an ongoing wave of Omicron infections. But the lockdown has also offered an avenue for the authorities to form a dragnet across the city, mass testing everyone to flush out potential infections.
Madam Chan, her investment banker husband and two children live in the west of the city, which will start its lockdown on Friday.
For now, there is simply less traffic in the neighbourhood, much like during Chinese New Year, when most of the city’s residents return to their home towns for the holidays.
This story is from the March 30, 2022 edition of The Straits Times.
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This story is from the March 30, 2022 edition of The Straits Times.
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