A Kiwi currently locked down in Shanghai has described the difficult conditions the city's residents are facing as China continues to enforce its zero-Covid policy.
David Foote and his partner Katrina have been stuck inside their home for a month after Shanghai entered a strict lockdown on March 30 due to a fresh Covid-19 outbreak.
Foote is desperate to get back to New Zealand, but told 1News that was no easy task.
"To get outside our compound would take a significant amount of negotiation with the committee that runs it," Foote explained.
China continues to enforce its zero-Covid policy. (Source: 1News)
"We would have to find a way to the airport, and that's not trivial at the moment either, because the metro is no running... taxi services are not running, you basically have to find a car service that has a permit.
"If we step outside our door other than to get tested, there's a really good chance someone in a white suit is going to yell at us and tell us to go back inside."
The lockdown is taking a financial toll on the couple too. Katrina, a preschool teacher, has been unable to work during the lockdown, leaving the pair relying on Foote's salary.
Add in the fact they were set to move to a new apartment when lockdown began, and they are currently stuck paying rent for two properties.
Getting food had been difficult too. Unlike New Zealand, Shanghai has not allowed people to visit supermarkets, meaning residents are relying on supplies to be delivered. Foote said this was a complicated process.
"If we want to get anything delivered we have to order in bulk," he said.
"We often have to negotiate with our neighbours to find something that a bunch of people want. There are bulk buys happening where people will find a supplier who was willing to ship, and they will, but they will only sell if you can do 50-plus orders or something like that. So you have to find 50 neighbours who want the same thing as you do.
"Yesterday we got about $50 worth of vegetables, because that's the minimum order, and the day before that we got a delivery of 50kg of potatoes basically, because we couldn't find a delivery that was able to give us a smaller amount of potatoes."
Meanwhile, some people had barricaded themselves in their apartments, refusing to get tested out of fear of being taken into quarantine, Foote said.
But he noted it could be worse.
"There are delivery drivers who are sleeping in the streets because they can't go back to their compound because of their work.
"Their neighbourhoods won't allow the men because of their work, so they are literally sleeping on the streets.
"There's just a lot of really tragic stories out there."
Beijing has now followed suit and has begun enforcing its own lockdowns.
"For the last 10 days at least we've had one PCR test and one self-test every day bar maybe one or two days. So I imagine that's kind of what's happening in Beijing right now," Foote said.
Foote is fundraising to bring his disabled dog home to New Zealand and has set up a givealittle page here.
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