Quarantine at shopping mall spawns heartwarming stories
Print Edition
Thousands of shoppers trapped in a mega shopping center for two days sounds like a plot for a thriller. It actually happened in Shanghai during the recent COVID-19 outbreak and spawned heartwarming stories, providing a silver lining amid the pandemic.
When Wang Zimo entered the Global Harbor mall on January 13, he never imagined what would happen over the next two days.
The largest downtown shopping mall in Putuo District, covering 480,000 square meters, was locked down for 55 hours from Thursday morning for COVID-19 screening. Thousands of shoppers were quarantined in the mall for several rounds of nucleic acid testing.
The mall opened its cinemas for customers to sleep and distributed toiletries, pillows and blankets. Many restaurants offered free food and drinks. Some tents from camping stores were set up for people to rest.
Blockbuster films were played on the large screens, while some entertainment sites opened their facilities for free.
Maternity and infant stores gave out toys to appease stranded children, and a beauty salon invited the elderly to sleep on the hairdressing chairs.
The shopping center reopened on Sunday morning after all customers and staff tested negative. The boss and senior officials of the mall presented flowers and small gifts to every leaving customer in gratitude for their cooperation.
‘Best out of the worst’
“It was the best out of the worst (situation) for us to be quarantined in such a shopping complex,” said Wang. He filmed a short video to share his special experience during the quarantine, which has gone viral on the internet and become an online sensation.
Wang, a junior high school student, was quarantined along with six of his classmates. They had planned to play a popular room escape game in one of the stores, but found that they could not leave the mall.
“I was astonished because such things only happened in movies or on television,” recalled Wang. “But I was not worried at all, because the staff and shop owners treated us warmly with free food and drinks.”
Updated information was broadcast on time. Mall staff maintained order and reminded people to wear masks round the clock. Bottled water was distributed frequently. Wang said when they woke up in the morning at the cinema, the mall had prepared hot breakfast — steamed buns and boiled tea eggs — for everyone.
They were allowed to order food or shop online. Deliverymen would leave the meals and products outside the mall. Wang bought a poker card to play with his classmates. They were told to leave on Friday night after testing negative.
Shanghai reported two locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and three local asymptomatic cases last Thursday. Multiple sites, schools and residential buildings were quarantined temporarily for COVID-19 screening.
The mall had prepared more than 10,000 sets of meals and numerous daily necessity items for customers during the lockdown, said Miao Cuiyan, general manager of the mall.
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