As many Shanghai residents shelter from Covid at home, a common sight on the megacity's suddenly subdued streets is the racing, swerving scooters of food-delivery riders.

Firms including Meituan, Alibaba-owned Ele.me, Pinduoduo and Dingdong Maicai are struggling to keep up with a rush of orders from sequestered citizens in need of groceries and disinfectants.

At a sorting centre in central Shanghai run by Dingdong Maicai, staff are working overtime to handle double the demand of a week ago, when the metropolis of 25 million people began battening down the hatches.

Shanghai has so far avoided a citywide lockdown but authorities have closed school campuses, sealed off some residential compounds and launched a rigorous round of mass testing.

Dingdong Maicai has hired 300 additional staff across the city in recent days, some of them restaurant workers left idle by closures.

China's hordes of scooter delivery drivers were hailed as national heroes two years ago when they kept untold millions fed during huge lockdowns when the virus first emerged.

The lessons learned from 2020 -- and no small amount of bravado -- have helped companies stay on top of the crush this time around.

"We are an iron army. Whatever artillery fire we face, we react quickly," said Zhang Yangyang, manager of the bustling yet tidy Dingdong sorting depot.

Since its initial outbreak faded two years ago, China has largely kept the virus under control through a tough zero-Covid strategy.

Although its national daily case number -- 4,365 reported Friday -- is unremarkable globally, it represents the country's worst uptick in infections since the start of the pandemic.

With the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreading, authorities have imposed stay-at-home orders or other restrictions in several cities.

But unclear messaging about their plans has sowed public confusion, helping to fuel binge-buying and the resulting burden on business managers like Zhang.

"I don't have a weekend," Zhang said.

China has one of the world's biggest and most developed ready-meal and grocery delivery sectors.

Slick smartphone apps enable users to place one-click orders from virtually any restaurant or food store within a several-kilometre radius, with the apps even displaying the delivery rider's body temperature.

Food runners report they are currently making up to 100 deliveries a day, which are often left outside housing complexes to avoid human contact.

Dingdong Maicai staffer Li Yawu has found himself suddenly working up to 15 hours a day, after which he goes home to "soak my feet".

"It would be untrue to say I wasn't scared in the beginning," he said of delivering to neighbourhoods where Covid has taken hold.

"But when you deliver food into a user's hands and there is that much gratitude in their eyes... I don't feel scared anymore."

China reports two Covid-19 deaths, first in more than a year
Shanghai (AFP) March 19, 2022 - China reported two Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, its first in more than a year, underlining the threat posed by an Omicron outbreak that has triggered the country's highest case counts since the pandemic's outset.

The National Health Commission said both deaths occurred in Jilin, the northeastern province which has been hardest-hit by a nationwide rise in cases that has prompted lockdowns or tight restrictions in several cities.

The deaths were the first reported in mainland China since January 2021, and bring the country's total death toll in the pandemic to 4,638.

In all, China reported 4,051 new cases on Saturday, down from 4,365 the day before, the health commission said, with more than half of the new cases coming in Jilin.

Beijing's communist leadership has touted its low death rate relative to other countries as evidence of the strength of its one-party governance model.

The two new deaths were buried in the health commission's daily report, and state-controlled media outlets made little mention of them.

- 'Zero-covid' under pressure -

The coronavirus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 but China has largely kept it under control through strict border controls, lengthy quarantines and targeted lockdowns.

But the highly transmissible Omicron variant is posing a stern challenge to the effectiveness and long-term viability of the government's "zero-Covid" strategy.

In recent weeks some official sources have suggested China may at some point need to co-exist with Covid-19 as other countries are doing, while also warning of the economic impact of mass lockdowns.

President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that China would stick with its zero-Covid strategy, while also allowing for a more "targeted" approach.

While in the past full lockdowns could be expected for any outbreak, authorities around the country have responded with varying measures to the latest viral spread.

Some cities have been closed off, including the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, home to 17.5 million people. But Shenzhen's measures were partially eased following Xi's comments.

Shanghai, meanwhile, has moved schooling online and rolled out mass testing, but has averted a full lockdown.

Authorities also have said that people with mild cases could isolate at central quarantine facilities, having previously sent all patients with any symptoms to specialist hospitals.

But tens of millions of people remain under stay-at-home orders across China due to an outbreak that has sent daily reported new cases soaring from less than 100 just three weeks ago to several thousand per day now.

Beijing also has watched nervously as Hong Kong has struggled to contain an Omicron outbreak that has sent deaths in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city soaring into the thousands.

Mainland China officials have also moved to free up hospital beds over fears the virus could put the health system under strain.

Jilin has built eight "makeshift hospitals" and two quarantine centres to stem the current upsurge.

State news outlets this week broadcast footage of dozens of giant cranes assembling temporary medical facilities in Jilin, which has only around 23,000 hospital beds for some 24 million residents.

The latest flare-ups also have prompted long queues to form outside mass testing sites across China and seen tight controls at ports, raising fears of trade disruption.

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Hong Kong leader defends health workers drafted in from China
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Hong Kong's leader on Friday warned against making "divisive comments" about health workers sent by China to help contain Covid, as tensions over their deployment complicate efforts to control a spiralling outbreak. The finance hub on Friday passed one million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, with nearly 5,500 deaths recorded in a population of 7.4 million - one of the highest death rates in the developed world. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and her administration have been widely crit ... read more