Malls in Shijiazhuang ordered to halt in-person business, switch to online

Supermarkets and shopping malls in Shijiazhuang, the capital of North China’s Hebei Province, have suspended physical operations and switched to online sales featuring contactless delivery to ensure that residents’ basic daily needs are met while they stay at home, local authorities announced on Sunday, amid the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the city.

More than 51 online platforms have promised to provide essential services to local residents.

These companies, including industry giants such as Alibaba and JD.com, promised to assume their social responsibilities, earnestly implement epidemic prevention and control measures, and do their utmost to guarantee the supply of daily necessities to residents, according to the official Weibo account of Shijiazhuang local government on Sunday.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Hebei Province continued as the province reported another 46 confirmed patients and 13 asymptomatic cases on Sunday, some of whom had been to weddings, fever clinics, school canteens and funerals.

The outbreak in Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital close to Beijing, comes four weeks before the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, the most important annual festival in China. With the festival comes an elevated traffic flow by migrant workers returning home for family reunions.

Shijiazhuang has stopped sales of train tickets to all other cities, and local residents were ordered to stay at home for another seven days to curb the spread of the virus, media reported.

Prices of major daily necessities have remained stable, Hebei Daily reported.

Shijiazhuang residents reached by the Global Times said demand could be basically met during days at home.

“We have a vegetable stand in our community, but delivery staff and products ordered online cannot come to a customer’s door,” a local resident surnamed Zhang told the Global Times on Sunday.