Watch: Amidst growing discontent, rap song on food shortage attempts to 'cheer up' Chinese

It’s absolute pandemonium in China. The country has been breaking everyday record of Covid cases, people have been scrambling to get their hands on essential items as increasing restrictions is triggering panic buying in the country.

The surge in the number of infections, highest in the last two years when the country first reported the virus, is being driven by the Omicron variant and its sub-variant, BA.2.

According to the National Health Commission, China has logged more than 70,000 domestic COVID-19 cases in March, the highest since 2020.

“Epidemiologists said that such a rapid increase in cases in this short time frame indicates the difficulty of quashing this wave quickly and returning the country to a state of zero-Covid as has been the case with previous waves,” a report in the state-run Global Times said.

Among the Chinese cities, Shanghai is reportedly recording the bulk of cases, with the city’s outbreak yet to peak.

It reported 5,656 asymptomatic cases and 326 symptomatic cases on Tuesday, up from 4,381 new asymptomatic cases and 96 new cases with symptoms a day earlier.

In an attempt to contain the virus spread without impacting the economic activity, the authorities in response have divided the city in two, with four day lockdowns and mass testing drives beginning on Monday for one half, and Friday for the other.

However late on Tuesday, authorities announced lockdown measures in some areas of the currently free section.

Amidst all this, a rap song capturing people’s growing discontent over food shortages is becoming a hit in Shanghai, reports The Guardian.

The artists behind the song, CATI2, PJ, and Keyso, are describing it as an attempt to “cheer up” tens of millions of residents locked down in China’s largest city.

The song, Grocery Shopping, laments empty shelves and fights in the supermarket aisles, and expressing the chaos set over by residents crowding around market stalls or lining up for PCR tests.

“Set your alarm, wake up, food fight,” the lyrics say. “Order that tofu, but the sauce all gone.”

“Thinking it was an excellent idea to use music to cheer up the people of Shanghai and dispel the negative atmosphere online, the three of us got started immediately,”PJ told Sixth Tone, a Shanghai-based online magazine.

“We chose buying vegetables as the theme, because it is the challenge that sums this outbreak up the most. I’ve been to the supermarket to stock up on food many times, and each time I saw people pick the shelves clean. It was even worse than when they buy up groceries before New Year.”

Watch |Parts of Shanghai under lockdown: 6,000 new cases recorded on Tuesday

(With inputs from agencies)