Police help hunt medicines for residents in lockdown

Xia Xin, 65, lives alone in a locked-down residential building in Taopu Town, Putuo District. He panicked a bit a few days ago when he found that he was running out of his anti-hypertension medicine.

After he reported his problem to the neighborhood committee, he was dismayed to find out that the town hospital was out of stock.

Qian Youji, 54, an officer at Baili Police Station who serves this residential complex, stepped in to help.

A community volunteer was given a pass to travel to other parts of the district and finally got Xia's prescribed medicine from a hospital in another town.

"We have dozens of calls daily from the residents who seek medicines, and the shortage of common prescriptions from the town hospital makes it more difficult for us to address their needs," said Qian, who serves 7,600 residents, a great many of whom are elderly.

Most parts of the densely populated urban districts in Shanghai are still under lockdown or restrictive measures, due to which many people are not able to leave their compound, subdistrict or town.

Shanghai police have mobilized forces on the ground to help address urgent needs of residents, and medicines are one of the priorities.

In Hongkou District, Chen Hongbin, an officer at Quyang Road Police Station, took action after learning that a large number of people living in an elderly home on Chifeng Road needed daily medicines for various chronic conditions.

On his police e-bike, he carried over 20 medical insurance cards with him and got over 200 boxes of medicines prescribed from three hospitals on Monday afternoon.

"I reminded people at the elderly home to disinfect the medicines before handing them out to people, and I will make sure to stand by any further needs," Chen said.

People with urgent needs of medicines which they failed to get from local hospitals can call 110 to seek help from the police, Shanghai police said.