Shenzhen breakfast shop feeding anti-pandemic staff, residents

Many residents in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, have had limitations on their movements starting Monday due to tightened control and prevention measures against the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

Yet Lai Linyuan, who runs a breakfast shop in the city's Nanshan district, was quite busy making steamed stuffed buns early Wednesday morning.

The buns were ordered by anti-pandemic workers at a nearby residential community station following a visit by local officials to Lai's shop, shortly after his online message in reply to an article posted by the official WeChat account of the Shenzhen health authority.

"The business was severely affected by the latest COVID-19 outbreak," he the Southern Metropolis Daily.

In the reply, Lai said he depended on the shop to make a living for his family.

"I am a father and a husband as well. I became very anxious and have almost collapsed… because I could not make money since the beginning of March," Lai said in the message.

Chaguang village in the city's Nansha district, where Lai lives, has been under closed management since Monday when the city began a seven-day suspension of all buses and metro services and lockdown of its all communities, villages and industrial zones.

Shenzhen reported 92 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, of which 37 were asymptomatic carriers, according to the local health authority.

"I could not go outside and run my breakfast business," Lai said. His shop is located in the nearby Shuguang community.

After he posted the message at midnight on Monday, Lai received a telephone call from workers at the Xili subdistrict community station.

"We told him he could continue to run the restaurant in accordance with control and prevention regulations," said Liao Zhikang, Party chief of Shuguang.

Liao also suggested the breakfast shop owner provide food for anti-pandemic workers in the communities.

Lai later obtained a certificate which allowed him to open the shop with assistance from workers at the community.

To meet residents' needs for daily necessities, markets in closed management areas in Shenzhen have guaranteed ample supplies at stable prices, according to Liao.

Residents can also order takeaway services from restaurants and food from online retail platforms, with many having grouped together to purchase fresh vegetables from dealers in markets.

"I was really touched after hearing the suggestion," Lai said, adding that running the breakfast shop was the only reason he could stay in the city.