Food and pharma supplies remain at normal levels

Local food and medical suppliers have played major roles in ensuring daily necessities supply in an effort to keep the economy ticking over.

Food and staples provided by Bright Food Group through wholesale channels from January 20 to February 14 include 1,470,000 tons of vegetables, 10,000 tons of fresh milk, 7,000 tons of pork, 7,000 tons of rice.

"Vegetable supplies will remain stable with the group's farm growing supply and distribution sites in Shandong, Jiangsu, Yunnan provinces as well as fungus and vegetable growing bases in the city's outskirts," said Bright Food Group Chairman Shi Mingfang.

The vegetable supply has recovered steadily since February 3 and returned to the normal level of about 8,500 tons on February 11.

The city's fresh dairy supply also remained at peak level with its dairy subsidiary Bright Dairy Co keeping full production capacity during the Spring Festival Holiday, with 500 tons pasteurized milk daily supply for the city.

Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group said it has responded swiftly to ensure pharma and equipment supply after Shanghai activated the level one public health emergency response on January 24.

Nearly 400 warehouse staff stayed at work during the Spring Festival break and seven working groups have been set up to work 24/7 and make sure dispatch is in order.

Medicines for urgent rescue and medical equipment totaling 8 tons have been sent to Shanghai's medical teams in Wuhan by Shanghai Pharma's logistics network.

Shanghai Pharma's dispatch center would respond within one hour after receiving request from Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, the city's designated hospital of treatment for confirmed patients, and for local hospitals the response time would be three hours.

It is also working to reduce the impact for a shortage of raw materials for some drugs due to transportation restrictions.