What does the complete closure of 7,148 communities in Wuhan mean? How to buy groceries during the lockdown?

On the afternoon of February 21, the Hubei Provincial Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Prevention and Control Command held the 29th press conference to introduce Hu Yabo, member of the Standing Committee of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of the Municipal Government: 7,148 communities in Wuhan are now fully closed. What does this mean? How to buy groceries during the lockdown?

On February 14, the Wuhan Municipal COVID-19 Prevention and Control Command issued a notice requiring that all residential communities in Wuhan be closed and managed, and the entry and exit of residents be strictly controlled. In this regard, Hu Yabo, member of the Standing Committee of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and Executive Vice Mayor of the Municipal Government, introduced that there are now 7,148 residential communities in Wuhan, including 3,159 property communities and 3,989 old open communities.

"It should be said that it is still very difficult to achieve comprehensive closed management, but through the joint efforts of all parties, we have now achieved this." He said that in order to do this job well, the majority of Wuhan citizens cooperated highly consciously, the central guidance group, provincial and municipal leaders attached great importance to it, and took the lead in conducting open and secret inspections every day. Party members and cadres who went down to the communities across the city participated in the community lockdown and various tasks of serving community residents on the spot. In addition, the city’s discipline inspection and supervision agencies have strengthened their supervision and inspection work, and have strictly handled in accordance with the law and regulations any cases of poor implementation of lockdown management.

How does Wuhan carry out epidemic isolation work? Hu Yabo said that isolation work is the key to controlling the source of infection and effectively controlling the route of infection. "The first is to rely on the big data platform to implement precise prevention and control. The municipal command has integrated the data of relevant personnel such as hospitals, disease control centers, medical insurance, public security, civil affairs, and communication operators through the big data platform, and coordinated the nucleic acid testing, epidemiological investigation, and isolation of close contacts of the 'four types of personnel' to form an information management closed loop. Guide the targeted nucleic acid testing and epidemiological investigation of the 'four types of personnel', so as to accurately identify close contacts and implement isolation as soon as possible, thus effectively shortening and effectively blocking the source of infection."

In the process of implementing the measures and decisions, all communities in Wuhan City have resolutely ensured that only one entrance and exit is retained in each community, and some old communities have implemented hard isolation of open residential areas through fencing. Arrange personnel to be on duty at the entrances and exits 24 hours a day, take temperature measurements, register and release people with credentials. Strict risk control is implemented at all 355 entrances and exits in the city, and inspection points are set up on bridges across the river to further strengthen motor vehicle control.

In addition, a large-scale community census was carried out across the city. All government agencies, enterprises, institutions, party members and cadres in the city have gone down to the grassroots to assist in risk control in residential areas and conduct comprehensive inspections of the "four types of personnel". "In the past three days, the city has once again carried out a large-scale dragnet inspection, and the district secretaries and mayors have also made written commitments that if any omissions occur, they must assume responsibility for poor prevention and control. Judging from the summary results of the inspections in each district and the comparison and analysis of big data, the problem of confirmed patients not being hospitalized for treatment in time has been basically resolved," said Hu Yabo.

On February 16, Wuhan Municipal Party Committee Secretary Wang Zhonglin deployed a three-day concentrated dragnet investigation, requiring to find out the bottom line and resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic. He demanded that the top leader take part in the battle personally, with the streets as the main body and the communities as the combat units, "leaving no household or person behind", and those who fail to implement the policy will be held accountable. Wang Zhonglin once threatened that after the investigation was completed, if another confirmed or suspected patient was found at home, the district party secretary and district mayor would be held accountable. On the evening of February 19, the district party committee secretaries and district mayors signed a letter of responsibility.