Wuhan meeting daily needs of residents, vice-mayor says
China Daily
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Residents buy subsidized vegetable packages in a neighborhood in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, on Feb 27, 2020. Carrots and potatoes are among more than three kinds of vegetables in each package, which weighs 5 kg and costs 10 yuan ($1.43). (Photo: China Daily)

The storage of daily necessities in Wuhan is generally sufficient to meet residents' demands during the city's lockdown, vice-mayor Xu Honglan said on Saturday.

Wuhan has also spared no effort to unclog the "last-mile" in logistics and delivery to ensure residents get what they need in their daily lives, Xu said.

The city government has recruited volunteers serving at communities and supermarkets to mitigate the shortage of delivery workers and increase delivery capacity, said Yao Bin, Party chief of Wuhan's commerce bureau.

"Community personnel and more than 20,000 volunteers were involved in the last 100-meter of the delivery to improve efficiency," Yao said.

He added that to build up the transportation capacity in the city, the government has taken over 800 buses, vehicles for express mail service and civil minibuses for the transportation between supermarkets and warehouses to communities.

"We've optimized the process of group purchase in communities to timely satisfy residents' needs of daily necessities," Yao said.

Li Guohan, director of Wuhan Civil Affairs Bureau, said every community has set up designated points to place daily supplies.

"Residents are guided in batches to pick up the supplies in different time periods," Li said.

Volunteers also help collect the needs of elderly people and disabled residents and help them buy necessary supplies, he added.