Sydney resident Linda Li was so worried about her parents not getting enough to eat while living under the strict COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai she took matters into her own hands.
Fresh food has become scarce for some in the Chinese city of 25 million.
Since late March, millions of residents have been confined to their homes and delivery services restricted to contain the Omicron outbreak.
"From the beginning, we were very anxious about food supplies and what we could do in an emergency," said Ms Li, who was so concerned she barely slept for a week.
Ms Li made a group order for her parents — who don't know how to shop online — and their neighbours.
The 20 food packages included fresh fruit, vegetables, pork and cooking oil.
"A man who had permission to leave home in [my parents'] neighbourhood helped distribute them to people's doors," Ms Li said.
Group buying online — which has been common in China for years as people who shop collectively can get lower prices — has become part of a survival strategy for Shanghai's residents.
"I joined many groups that organise group buying in my parents' residential complex, but I was worried about food safety and where the food was coming from, so I started my own group," Ms Li said.
The city, battling China's biggest coronavirus outbreak so far, recorded 20,634 new local asymptomatic infections on Friday, up from 15,698 a day earlier.
The major financial hub reported 12 new COVID-19 related deaths.
Millions of Shanghai residents remain under strict lockdown, even as the government begins easing quarantine rules in some compounds that have not seen COVID-19 cases for at least a week.
However, even some of the 12.3 million people who are allowed out are barred from leaving their neighbourhoods.
Though frustrations continued to bubble over in Shanghai's sealed off residential compounds, local officials maintain there will be no relaxation until new cases outside of quarantine areas have all been cleared.
"The more critical the period becomes, the more we need to grit our teeth and focus our strength," Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng was quoted as saying on Shanghai's official government WeChat channel late on Friday.
Ms Li said there was no sign of freedom for her parents yet and she was having trouble securing more food.
She said group buying in their neighbourhood in Pudong district had been suspended for a week to reduce COVID case numbers, with bulk purchases only allowed through neighbourhood management.
"They tightened the rules again. It's called a 'period of silence'," she said.
"So far, I didn't see any urgent shortage of [groceries] in our neighbourhood's chat groups, but let's see what happens … in seven days."
Shanghai's local media said last week that the "period of silence" was a rumour, but many residents took to social media to confirm the restrictions.
The ABC contacted the Shanghai municipal government to confirm if there had been a tightening of the rules, but did not receive a response.
Government urged to provide relief packages
Lynn Feng, another Sydney resident, has also been shopping online for her elderly parents and in-laws who live in two different districts in Shanghai.
"It's been hard to buy what you want since the start of lockdown," Ms Feng said.
Ms Feng has been using several different online shopping apps, as well as group buying strategies, but has trouble finding the right food available in the right districts.
Group buying is done mostly via groups on WeChat, through programs embedded on that app.
"Many friends in Shanghai have to set an alarm clock to 5am to be able to buy groceries online," she said.
"It's a pure test of whether you are the lucky one.
"Even though we have an advantage with a time difference of two hours ahead, I still often find [the shopping page] shown as unavailable due to insufficient transport capability."
Ms Feng has been shopping on other apps, like JD.com, for individual food deliveries for her relatives.
"Sometimes, vegetables are shown as available on the app for people living in my in-laws' neighbourhood," she said.
"But when I tried to place the order for my parents, they disappeared and there were only pandemic relief packages with a mix of meat and veggies available."
Ms Feng's mother has diabetes so she can only eat certain foods.
"There are many fruits my mother can't eat, so I had to cancel [some orders]."
Fresh fruit and vegetables and medicine were most in demand, she said.
She added that delivery of the food could also be a problem and five or six of her orders had not turned up.
Ms Feng doesn't believe group buying is the best solution for people in lockdown, and hopes the government can provide relief food packages more often.
"If the government can send relief packages every five days, my parents and in-laws wouldn't need group buying anymore," she said.
"But you never know what's in those relief packages either.
"My parents from April 1 to 11, only received one package from the government. It was mainly dried food such as mushrooms, fungus and dates.
"For any family that doesn't have enough food, you can hardly make a meal out of these.
"It is probably just the time we have to rely on ourselves."
Local officials on Friday promised to ease anti-virus controls on truck drivers that were hampering food supplies and trade.
A deputy mayor, Zhang Wei, promised "every effort" to resolve problems that prompted complaints about lack of food.
ABC/AP
