1 / 14 As Shanghai’s COVID-19 lockdown leaves residents struggling to access essentials, residents of the mega Chinese city are almost out of food and they are reeling under an acute food crisis.2 / 14They say that they “only eat one meal a day” and “don’t know how to live until May”, The HK Post reported. According to the report, the epidemic situation in Shanghai is still deteriorating, and the number of infected people is still high under the “zero lockdown” policy.3 / 14On April 3, the Chinese government announced the deployment of thousands of military personnel to Shanghai to assist in the mandatory testing of all 25 million residents for the virus that causes COVID-19.4 / 14Later, Shanghai authorities said the city would indefinitely remain under lockdown – meaning that residents are not allowed to leave their homes – as it reviews results of the mass Covid testing.5 / 14Analysts have said China would not risk relaxing its zero-Covid stance before then, over fears of a destabilizing outbreak. 6 / 14Meanwhile, health experts have warned the virus could overwhelm health care systems, and put the elderly, who lag in vaccinations, at risk, CNN reported.7 / 14But even as Beijing sticks to its zero-tolerance approach, it is facing the possibility of multiple major outbreaks as Omicron spreads, the report added.8 / 14According to the authorities, Shanghai has had more than 130,000 COVID cases since 1 March, yet nobody has died and there is only one seriously ill person. Such statistics fly in the face of the rest of the world’s experience with COVID.9 / 14Wu Zunyou of China’s Center for Disease Control said death rates were minimal because of efforts to curb outbreaks early and China’s high vaccination rate.10 / 14“Compared with overseas, our country’s COVID-19 death rate is low because of the various measures to prevent or reduce deaths.” When reporting deaths, there are strong incentives in China not to attribute them directly to COVID if alternative underlying conditions are available. Because of official obfuscation, it is simply impossible to know how many have died from COVID there. China also spends lots of time blaming imported frozen food and mail for spreading COVID.11 / 14Beijing claims a Zero-COVID policy must be followed because “Omicron can generate a higher mortality rate than Delta during the epidemic”. 12 / 14This assertion is verifiably false. Perhaps other reasons are more pertinent to the CCP’s choice of a Zero-COVID policy13 / 14Of the fresh local confirmed cases, 1,015 were reported in Shanghai, 248 in Jilin, 13 in Zhejiang, and six in Beijing. The rest of the cases were reported in other 12 provincial-level regions. On Friday, 23,815 new asymptomatic carriers were reported in the China mainland, including the 23,737 cases from the local ones and 78 were the imported ones, according to the commission. 14 / 14Authorities across China, which have mostly managed to keep the virus at bay for the last two years, are stepping up Covid-19 control measures, including movement restrictions, mass testing and new quarantine centres.