April 2nd, the bell rings. We had a scare, after all my family is in the middle of one of the most severe lockdowns in the world, in Shanghai, China. For many, having a visit in the middle of the day means a group of nurses in astronaut uniforms. Everyone who receives the diagnosis of Covid, symptomatic or not, is taken to a quarantine of at least 14 days.
Fortunately, he was a volunteer delivering packages of food sent by the authorities in Pudong, the eastern part of the city—Puxi is the western part. In Shanghai, public transport is unavailable, supermarkets are closed, and people cannot go out, except in very few situations.
The reason is simple: the goal is to bring the numbers of infections to zero, and for that, any movement of people could spread the virus. Supermarkets in operation, with a delivery structure, mean the movement of tens of thousands of people. Only those who are really part of the basic infrastructure services can leave the house, such as hospitals and energy and water companies, for example.
The point is that the current wave was so violent that the closure of the city was not done with proper planning. Initially, the government announced that the heaviest lockdown would be for five days in Pudong, and only then would Puxi be closed. But the problem is that several communities, like mine, were already in lighter confinement, as they shelter residents who were indirect contacts of confirmed cases.
In the light phase, we could order online and walk around the condo. But then came the announcement of the heavy lockdown, which took us by surprise. In Puxi, many rushed to shops and supermarkets to stock up. Another mistake made by the authorities was separating families if only the child or adult was infected — the infected person or child would be quarantined in a specific place.
The separation of families caused great commotion in the city, and the authorities only changed that policy this Tuesday (5), almost ten days after the most acute phase of the crisis and after a lot of online complaints.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t prepare. Overnight, I went back to the past, to Brazil in the mid-1980s. At that time, stocking up on food was the rational way to survive hyperinflation, and it was only for my mother to receive the salary that we would rush out to do the shopping. of the month.
Today, part of our day in Shanghai is looking for the very few places open to buy what we find and managing the many WeChat groups – WhatsApp here – in the condominium, created for community shopping. There are fruit groups, vegetables, eggs and milk, among others. The package sent by the government was very welcome, not because we needed calories, but because it brought some variety, with noodles, spinach and mushrooms.
However, it is fascinating to discover the sense of community in China, a country with 5,000 years of history and which has experienced many calamities. Without counting on neighbors, few would survive plagues and wars. Today, no one is close to being in need, but it’s nice to see how many are willing to help.
We already lent a knife to a neighbor, while another gave us ten apples, because she had 15 kg of fruit. Neighbors of students at NYU Shanghai, the university where I teach, mobilized to help foreign students, giving them healthy food, so they wouldn’t eat only junk food.
With errors or not, the most important thing is for the lockdown to achieve its purpose: to reduce cases to zero.
