China's Anhui ensures daily supplies amid latest COVID-19 resurgence

HEFEI -- East China's Anhui province, which is combating the latest COVID-19 resurgence, has taken a range of measures to guarantee the supply of daily necessities.

From June 26 to July 4, a total of 186 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 895 asymptomatic carriers had been logged in the latest epidemic resurgence in Anhui, with the majority of cases being reported in Sixian county, the provincial health commission said Tuesday.

More than 60 supermarkets have been arranged to supply daily necessities to residents in the virus-hit Sixian, where 52 confirmed cases and 164 asymptomatic carriers were reported on Monday alone.

To reduce people-to-people contact, residents can place orders online. Nearly 30,000 orders of individual and collective buying are delivered per day on average in Sixian, according to Lu Qiang, head of the county's bureau of commerce.

"I bought two packages of chicken wings, four apples, eight steamed buns and some vegetables. It cost me less than 80 yuan (around $12), which is about the same price at normal times," said a resident surnamed Yao, who did the grocery shopping online.

Local authorities are also monitoring prices and cracking down on illegal behaviors such as hoarding, fabricating information and price gouging. At present, daily necessities such as flour, rice, meat, cooking oil and more are in stable supply in Sixian.

"We deliver about 3,000 orders of groceries per day on average," said Meng Tao, general manager of Jiamei supermarket in the county.

Meng and 94 other supermarket employees have been living in the supermarket or designated hotels since the latest COVID-19 emergence.

"We try to arrange one delivery vehicle for each residential community after we gather all the orders. The groceries will be picked up by volunteers waiting at community gates and then sent to each household after disinfection," said Meng.

A management system of "three heads" has been implemented in the county to ensure the smooth delivery of supplies and the needs of residents are met in a timely and orderly manner.

Xu Ke, 27, a local government official, is appointed as the head of the Taoliwenyuan community in Sixian. Together with 14 building heads and 68 unit heads, Xu is responsible for collecting the needs of and delivering supplies to the households in the community.

Each unit head is in charge of the daily supplies of 13 households. For the vulnerable group such as the aged and the disabled, the unit heads will call them or go to their homes to provide services. "The management system breaks down our work to each individual, which enables us to respond to people's needs more precisely," Xu said.

"Some residents have also donated rice, vegetables and instant noodles to those in need in the community. We are all like a big family in this special situation, trying to weather through the difficult time together," she added.