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So... word on the street is that Shanghai has two weeks or less to reach the big ZERO, and that means things might get stricter before they get better. Just rumors, of course.

What's that saying?

It's always darkest before the dawn?

And on that note...

Lots of compounds are "going silent"

Several compounds in the city have implemented a "silent period" in which residents are being asked ("asked") to stay in their apartments and refrain from receiving delivery orders. This doesn't seem to be a city-wide policy, and there has been no official announcements at the municipal level, but as we've seen with this whole thing, a mandate gets handed down from on high — in this case, do what you need to do to reach zero cases — and then it gets interpreted and implemented in a variety of different ways in practice.

So, yeah, some compounds are doing this. Some aren't. And from anecdotal evidence, some compounds are doing it but not really trying all that hard with it.

If this is the first you're hearing of it, maybe sort yourself for extra food in case it suddenly comes up at yours. And... yeah, we hope this yields some sort of positive effect in a few days.

So, the entire building has to be taken if there's just one positive case?

Oh, here's a new thing. The past few days has seen "close contacts" of positive cases — people who live on the same floor or building — get shuttled off to hotels despite testing negative. This is, of course, a pretty radical shift from existing policy that people who test negative can... y'know... stay in their homes for lockdown. Again, this is another one that is being variously interpreted by the individual neighborhood committee that is encountering it.

From our own personal experience: Yesterday, an occupant in an apartment two floors down from ours tested positive. They went to Covid camp. The people in apartments on either side were taken to a hotel. They left the rest of the floor alone.

Addressing this specifically, the Shanghai CDC announced in a press conference:

That's the official line. "Conditions" allowing home quarantine are, evidently, being assessed according to the given situation.

Most airport shuttle services are no longer available

Speaking of "things getting stricter". An airport and hospital shuttle service that Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê×ÊÁÏÍø has been working with for a few weeks now reports that they are no longer able to offer rides to the airport... or anywhere else. The situation appears to be affecting most car services, so getting somewhere in Shanghai just got more difficult. Talking to the management of the company, it appears that the previous situation was a gray area in which an issued license for an authorized ride was re-used to drive other customers. This loophole is now... no longer a loophole.

Trying to end on a positive note: The US CDC helps dog owners and the Changning Shenpu clinic is open again... ish

Shenpu clinic, a government sanctioned pet hospital that handles pre-flight vaccinations and blood test for taking pets out of the country, has been closed since the lockdown, and has been only accepting emergency appointments through a by-invitation-only WeChat group for those with flights in May.

The only Shenpu that handles pre-flight health checks in cooperation with Shanghai Customs is the Xujiahui road Huangpu branch, and it's still closed to general appointments.

The Changning branch of Shenpu, however, has recently reopened and they are offering limited services, specifically microchips and rabies vax's. These are the first steps you need to complete to get a dog license and to move your pet out of the country. They're only doing these two things, though, so you'll still have to try other avenues for additional steps, for example if your destination requires a rabies antibody titre test.

More on getting your pets out of the country: We talked to Lee-Anne from SCAA and she updated that despite some flight cancellations putting export plans at risk due to limited airline spots to re-book pets, there is some good news for Americans trying to get their dog home. The US CDC has extended a temporary suspension for Shanghai residents to get an import permit: "People evacuating Shanghai with 3 or fewer personal pet dogs don't require a CDC Dog Import Permit if booking travel between April 4 and June 20".

This just in: Xuhui District achieves zero clearance

Xuhui joins Putuo as the second downtown Shanghai district to "basically" achieve zero community transmission. This is a good thing.

This will result in more freedoms for people living in Xuhui, right?

...right?

...right?