Baby and maternal products top priority during lockdown

Imaginechina

Baby and maternal product purchases have been listed as a top priority by the city government, prioritized for ordering and delivery during the lockdown, Shanghai's Vice Mayor Chen Tong said on Thursday.

More than 3,500 cans of infant formula have been sold at local supermarkets in the past 10 days, the supply of which remains sufficient with another 133,200 cans available, Chen said at the city's daily press briefing on COVID-19.

The government has helped solve logistic and delivery problems for suppliers such as supermarket chains Lianhua, Metro and Carrefour.

People can order baby and maternal products via the mobile apps of these companies.

A local resident asked a local television station for help buying amino acid baby formula on Wednesday. Babemax in Jinshan District delivered two cans of the formula to the family and ordered more than 600 cans of special formula from Yiwu in neighboring Zhejiang Province, which arrived in Shanghai on Thursday morning, according to the vice mayor.

Local e-commerce platforms, such as Meituan and Ele.me, have also connected with suppliers to enhance the delivery capacity for baby and maternity products.

Chen noted these platforms have opened emergency channels on their apps to cater to the elderly, parents of infants, physically challenged people and other special groups.

People can call the city's comprehensive 12345 hotline or the service hotline publicized by their subdisticts or towns for help. Chen promised to "respect every call and inquiry."

Meituan's app has received more than 20,000 requests on its emergency channel since the service was introduced on Wednesday, said Mao Fang, vice president of Meituan.

Sixty percent of the requests were for infants and 20 percent were from seniors, Mao said.

The company has launched a community group buying program in Yangpu, Songjiang, Baoshan, Xuhui and Putuo districts to improve service during the lockdown. It intends to extend the program to more local districts.

About 1,000 experienced vegetable-sorting employees have been assigned to Shanghai to enhance distribution and deliveries.

The company is also offering meal delivery services in communities across the city. As of Thursday, more than 70,000 meals have been delivered.

Moreover, several self-driving delivery vehicles have been shipped to Shanghai from Beijing and put into use on Kangqiao Road in the Pudong New Area and Ruijin Hospital to transport nucleic acid test samples and medical supplies, Mao added.

All delivery and sorting staff will take polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests or antigen self-tests every day.