As Covid numbers drop in the United States, and across the Pacific, the city of Shanghai has been living in total isolation and starvation, living day by day with no indication of this lockdown ends.

We’re lucky that many of the past Covid restrictions have been either lifted or lessened which made every day seem normal for once. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing for  Shanghai, China.

For the past five weeks, Shanghai, a city of over 26 million people, has been under strict lockdown as Covid numbers spike to the thousands.

The rise in cases caused the government to issue this mandate to ensure that Covid doesn’t spread any further, causing the many millions to stay indoors.

“Shanghai reported 25,141 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases for Tuesday, up from 22,348 a day,” Stanway, a reporter for Reuters said. “The widespread lockdown and tighter zero-COVID restrictions in several cities around Shanghai have caused significant supply disruptions with transport and logistics under severe pressures.”

The population density for Shanghai is three times higher than in New York, as everybody is crammed, apartment to apartment. It displayed the sheer desperation of the Chinese people.

Millions of starving Shanghai residents have been seen on video openly screaming at authorities as Covid restrictions are at a record high.

Throughout the course of the pandemic, China has been applying strict measures in order to prevent the virus from spreading, which comes at the cost of many lives.

Rather than implementing a cautionary plan to prevent any loss of life, it is in China’s benefit to not allow the virus to spread rather than having a safe haven for their citizens. 

“The massive city of 25 million people is at the center of China’s efforts to stamp out the country’s largest-ever Covid outbreak,” CNN reporter David Culver said. “No one is allowed to leave their residential compounds even to buy food, meaning we rely on the government or private delivery drivers stretched thin by massive demand.”

The main policy that China is trying to implement is called the ‘zero-covid’ strategy, which has increasingly become a detriment to the nation and its citizens.

The main points of this strategy are as follows: travel to China is limited and restrictions are placed, regular community testing is carried out, all nonessential businesses are to be shut down, and schools are to be closed.

The United States used many of these same strategies at the beginning of the pandemic, but China, they’re trying to completely pack their citizens as if they were cattle without any concern for their well-being.

China is to prevent any widespread panic across the country and set its eyes on the nation’s capital, Beijing. 

As of today, the country has already tested at least 22 million people in Beijing which is approximately their entire city population, in order to avert another Shanghai lockdown which would put 42 million people into lockdown in both cities to be under strict quarantines. 

“Chinese officials have repeatedly said heavy-handed COVID curbs, including prolonged lockdowns, are needed,”  according to Reuters, “to save as many lives as possible and prevent the health system from being overwhelmed.” 

As many are still trapped in Shanghai, yelling out to the night sky wishing for things to be better, to the people of Shanghai who are struggling to have a meal and feed their loved ones, struggling to keep their minds intact without feeling discouraged about the situation, my heart goes out to you.