Small "riots" have broken out in Shanghai as residents who have been confined in their homes for two weeks show their frustration at China's strict "COVID-zero" policy.
The city has been under lockdown since March 28 and, with supermarkets shut and deliveries restricted, there have been increasing reports of residents unable to access bare necessities.
Its streets have remained largely silent as the curbs under China's "zero-tolerance" policy allow only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery personnel or those with special permission to move freely.
However, videos have emerged on Chinese social media and on Twitter in recent days which show growing social unrest.
In one incident, shown in several videos, a large crowd of people confront security guards in protective suits at the entrance to a residential complex in strict lockdown, shouting "hand out the [food] supplies".
A Weibo user, Yaya, posted that there had been riots in nearby neighbourhoods.
She said it was only where people protested that they received food.
"It's so ridiculous," she said. "My husband and I have been fighting for vegetables online for some days.
While Shanghai's government has been distributing food, many residents have complained that deliveries are insufficient, particularly in the Jiuting area of Songjiang District.
Jiuting has been one of the areas with the most cases in the current outbreak.
"[Jiuting] people can only rely on each other," said one Weibo user.
"Ten days into isolation, countless money and time spent on surviving.
"Other districts have received food supplies, only we are living on our own."
Residents have resorted to group buying of groceries because they were not allowed to leave their buildings.
Posts circulating on social media platforms such as Weibo also show that some residents have not been able to have their food orders delivered, while others posted that they were running out completely.
Some people said that, as soon as they went to the grocery shopping app, the day's orders were already filled.
Other videos on social media show the desperation of some Shanghai residents and the authorities' response.
In a clip shot at night, the sound of screams and yells echoes between residential towers.
Another shows a drone flying near apartments as a recorded message is played: "Control your soul's desire of freedom, and don't open your window and sing, which has a risk to spread COVID."
Restrictions easing in some areas
Authorities said the lockdown would start easing in some areas from Monday.
Shanghai had assigned residential units one of three risk categories, to allow those in areas with no positive cases during a two-week stretch to engage in "appropriate activity" in their neighbourhoods, city official Gu Honghui said.
"Each district will announce the specific names of the first batch [of communities] divided into the three types, and three subsequent lists will be announced in a timely manner," he told a news briefing.
According to China's nationalist tabloid Global Times, e-commerce platforms such as JD.com as well as Alibaba's Ele.me delivery apps were working with authorities to ensure that everyone had access to vegetables, fruits and other produce.
Wang Wenbo, a vice president at JD.com, said at Shanghai's daily media briefing that the company was focused on basic foodstuffs and baby care items.
Xiao Shuixian, senior vice president at Alibaba Group's Ele.me, said the company had brought in 2,800 more delivery workers in the past week.
Shanghai a test for 'COVID-zero' policy
COVID-19 case numbers in Shanghai are small by global standards, but the city is battling China's worst outbreak since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in 2019.
Of the local cases Shanghai reported on Sunday, 1,006 were symptomatic while 23,937 were classed as asymptomatic, which China counts separately.
Shanghai has become a test bed for China's COVID-management strategy in the face of the highly infectious Omicron variant as it seeks to test, trace and centrally quarantine all people who test positive, symptomatic or not, to stem the spread of the virus.
On Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency warned that an easing of China's "dynamic, zero-COVID approach" could be "disastrous", given the danger the Omicron variant posed to people with underlying health conditions, the elderly and those who were unvaccinated.
"China's medical system would risk a collapse, leading to enormous loss of life, if it gives up on epidemic prevention and control," Xinhua said.
Instead, China is sticking with its approach, even as other countries are seeking to live with COVID-19.
Heavy measures — such as the separation of COVID-positive children from their parents, a practice it eased last week — have sparked criticism domestically and expressions of concern from diplomats.
Fears in other cities
Residents of other cities have expressed fear in social media groups that their areas might enter lockdowns, sharing screenshots of maps showing closed highways in many parts of the country.
On Saturday, China's transport ministry said that it was working with other government departments on standardising highway checkpoints because restrictions at local levels were causing congestion for critical supplies.
The southern metropolis of Guangzhou, home to 18 million people, on Sunday announced a halt to in-person teaching for most students.
Meanwhile, the port city of Ningbo said it was closing all indoor dining at restaurants and hotels and that people who had been in confined spaces since April 3 would undergo three days of daily testing.
Ningbo reported three new confirmed COVID-19 cases on April 9.
On Saturday, Beijing's city government placed a high-risk area under lockdown after eight COVID-19 cases were confirmed in two weeks, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, told reporters.
ABC/wires
