- China’s government has urged citizens to stock up on daily necessities.
- The government last year launched a national campaign to curb food waste.
- More than 38,000 people were tested as a result.
As the country adopts increasingly strict measures to contain its newest COVID outbreak, China’s government has advised individuals to stock up on daily essentials and authorities to take steps to ensure adequate food supplies, as reported by Medical Xpress.
Families Stack Up
“Families should save a certain number of daily needs as needed to meet everyday life and emergencies,” according to a notification issued on the Ministry of Commerce’s website late Monday.
The directive made no mention of a food shortage or whether the directive was prompted by concerns that COVID procedures might disrupt supply chains or leave persons incarcerated without food.
However, China, which has kept infection rates low with a COVID-zero strategy of border closures, targeted lockdowns, and extensive quarantine periods is ramping up its efforts to manage the latest outbreak, particularly ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which begin on February 4.
Climate changes
The Commerce Ministry’s letter also instructed authorities to take steps to ease agricultural production, maintain seamless supply chains, provide appropriate regional food stocks, and keep prices stable.
Aside from COVID issues, China has been heavily struck by significant summer flooding in the last two years, which has harmed agricultural productivity and pushed up prices, creating fears that the problem may grow as climate change brings more extreme weather.
National Effort
Last year, the government started a national effort to reduce food waste.
For most of the pandemic, China has kept daily new case counts in the low double digits.
However, daily instances peaked at 143 in August during a Delta outbreak, then dropped for a few weeks before rising again amid a “severe” new outbreak, with cases cropping up across a dozen provinces, according to the government.
On Monday, ninety-two new cases were reported, the most since mid-September.
As a result, almost 38,000 persons were tested.
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Source: Medical Xpress
