A community worker guides residents for nucleic acid test in Haidian District, Beijing, capital of China, May 7, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

Beijing has a sufficient and stable supply of daily necessities and the trade order remains normal to meet residents' needs, the Beijing authorities confirmed again at Friday's press briefing, after they previously refuted rumors of a lockdown and told residents that it is unnecessary to hoard food.

Beijing reported 51 new local COVID-19 infections between 3 pm on Thursday and 3 pm on Friday, Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing municipal disease prevention and control center, said at the briefing on Friday. Among them, 40 were discovered in quarantine areas and 11 outside those areas, Pang said.

On Thursday, many Beijing residents dashed to hoard food amid the lockdown rumors and later the authorities clarified that daily supplies are sufficient.
 
In the past week, the average daily amount of vegetables in city markets has been maintained at 26,000 to 29,000 tons, which is normal and a relatively high level. The average daily supply of pork and eggs in seven major wholesale agricultural markets exceeded 420 tons, and the grain and cooking oil market supplies are stable, Guo Wenjie, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau said at the briefing.

Major supermarkets including Wumart Stores and e-commerce platforms such as JD.com in Beijing are fully prepared to ensure supplies by increasing vegetable purchases and stocks, as well as extending business opening hours.

Also, e-commerce platforms have increased the delivery capacity to more than 1.5 times that of normal days by recruiting new employees and cooperating with third-party express logistics enterprises, according to the authorities.

Chinese supermarket chain operator Yonghui Superstores announced on Friday that all the stores in Beijing will extend their opening hours from Friday to Sunday. The superstore said that it has been restocking at five times the usual level and over 40 stores in Beijing are operating normally with a stock of nearly 500 tons of fresh fruit, nearly 2,000 tons of eggs and milk, and nearly 4,500 tons of rice, flour, grain and cooking oil.  

In order to ensure safe delivery, a "white list" mechanism for delivery personnel has been established to ensure preventive and control measures are taken, including daily temperature monitoring, COVID-19 nucleic acid tests, wearing of N95 facing masks and contactless delivery as well, according to Guo.

Also, a working guideline to ensure sufficient supplies for residents under lockdown amid the epidemic has been made to require supermarkets close to lockdown areas to increase stocks by up to three or five times the normal level. Sufficient delivery capacity and volunteering work to send supplies to the front door of those residents under lockdown have also been required in the guideline. 

"I have confidence in Beijing maintaining sufficient supplies as the city is fully prepared. My family is not panicking and we will follow the preventive measures such as avoiding gatherings," a local Beijing resident surnamed Zhou told the Global Times on Friday.