Emergency food supplies and food security in Wuhan and Nanjing, China, during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a field survey

Exploring the Implications of COVID-19 on Food Security and Coping Strategies among Urban Indigenous Peoples in Saskatchewan, Canada

The COVID-19 pandemic has notably impacted food security, especially among urban Indigenous communities. This study aimed to examine the impact of the pandemic and related lockdown measures on the food security of urban Indigenous peoples in Saskatchewan, Canada. In partnership with Indigenous co-researchers, we designed an online survey disseminated via SurveyMonkey® (San Mateo, CA, USA) from August 2021 to August 2022. This survey detailed background information, the Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM), state of food access, and traditional food consumption habits. Of the 130 Indigenous respondents, 75.8% were female, 21.9% male, and 2.3% non-binary, with an average age of 36.2 years. A significant 68.4% experienced food insecurity during the pandemic's first four months. Increased food prices (47.1%) and reduced market availability (41.4%) were the dominant causes. Additionally, 41.8% highlighted challenges in accessing traditional foods. Relying on community resources and government food distribution programs (40.7%) was the most reported coping strategy for those experiencing food insecurity. Notably, 43.6% reported receiving no government financial support during the crisis. This study emphasizes the severe food insecurity among urban Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan during the pandemic. The findings highlight the immediate need for interventions and policies that ensure access to culturally relevant food, especially for future crises.

Epidemic history investigation: a new method of finding close contacts

Introduction

Coronavirus disease 2019 has become a major global public health concern in December 2019. However, finding and excluding close contacts of COVID-19 infectors is a critical but difficult issue. This study aimed to introduce a new method of epidemiological investigation named space-time companions, which was adopted in Chengdu, China, in November 2021.

Methods

An observational investigation was conducted during a small outbreak of COVID-19 in Chengdu, China in November 2021. A new method of epidemiological investigation called space-time companion was adopted in this outbreak, which was defined as the one who stayed in the same spatiotemporal grid (range: 800 m * 800 m) with the confirmed COVID-19 infector for more than 10 min in the last 14 days. A flow chart was used to describe the screening process of space-time companions in detail and illustrate the space-time companion epidemic management method.

Results

The COVID-19 epidemic outbreak in Chengdu was effectively controlled for approximately one incubation period (14 days). After four rounds of space-time companions screening, more than 450,000 space-time companions were screened, including 27 COVID-19 infectors. Moreover, in the subsequent rounds of nucleic acid testing for all people in the city, no infected person were found proving the end of this epidemic outbreak.

Conclusion

The space-time companion provides a new idea for screening close contacts of the COVID-19 infector and other similar infectious diseases, which can serve as a supplement to traditional epidemiological history surveys to verify and avoid missing close contacts.

Governing for food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan and Nanjing, China

The global COVID-19 pandemic has elicited a range of public health governance responses. One common result has been an associated disruption of food supply chains and growing urban food insecurity. Policy responses to this situation have not yet received sufficient research attention. This paper therefore focuses on the urban food security implications of China's zero-COVID public health measures and the response of central, provincial and municipal government to the governance challenge of ensuring a stable and sufficient food supply to urban consumers. During the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 in China, zero-COVID lockdown measures aimed to contain and eliminate the spread of the virus. This paper examines the associated policy responses around urban food security in early 2020, with a particular focus on two cities: Wuhan (where SARS-CoV-2 was first identified) and Nanjing (a neighbouring city). The analysis is based on an inventory of policy-related documents providing a wide range of information about governance responses to the pandemic. Four major governance challenges are addressed: agricultural production, food transportation, stabilization of food prices, and new contactless methods in purchasing foods. Key recommendations for post-pandemic policy responses around urban food security include: ensuring consistency throughout all levels of government, strengthening existing food reserves to leverage emergency responses, addressing the root causes of pandemic-related food insecurity by focusing on access at the household level, and improving food utilization.

Impacts of community-level grassroots organizations on household food security during the COVID-19 epidemic period in China

Purchasing food via community-level grassroots organizations was a new pattern of food patronage for Wuhan residents during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, but little attention was paid to it. The study examined the relationship between community-level grassroots organizations and household food insecurity based on an online survey of household food insecurity in Wuhan in March 2020. The study found that problems in all three domains of food insecurity including food anxiety, insufficient quality and inadequate quantity existed but were uneven. Community-level grassroots organizations played an important role in promoting food security including reducing worries about food supply and providing enough food intake, but did not ensure households had adequate food quality due to increasing food prices, fewer varieties of food and decreased food freshness. Compared to other grassroots organizations, the community committee had actually become an extension of the government to run administrative grassroots affairs before the epidemic, so its tight relationship with local government made it become the major grassroots power in ensuring household food security at the residential community level.

Prevalence and determinants of food insecurity during the 2022 COVID-19 related lockdown in Shanghai

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic has led to increased food insecurity levels. This cross-sectional study examines the prevalence and determinants of food insecurity during the two-month (1 April to 1 June 2022) city-wide lockdown in Shanghai. The data was collected via an online questionnaire from 3230 adult Shanghai residents during the lockdown. Food insecurity was measured using an adapted version of the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale. Nearly 70% of participants reported being exposed to food insecurity. Using multivariable logistic regressions, we examined the associations between key correlates (i.e. age, income, lockdown-related income loss, migration, employment status, social capital, preparedness, and received social support) and overall food insecurity while adjusting for ethnicity, gender, education, household size, and marital status. Results showed that compared to local Shanghai residents, migrants (i.e, permanent migrants with Hukou (OR = 2.16), permanent migrants without Hukou (OR = 2.06), temporary migrants (OR = 2.74)), and participants with less than or greather than 50% lockdown-related income loss (OR = 2.60, OR = 3.09), were associated with higher odds of overall food insecurity. Participants with greater preparedness (OR = 0.66), greater bonding social capital (OR = 0.93), and greater bridging social capital (OR = 0.94), had lower odds of overall food insecurity. Targeted interventions are needed to enhance food resilience and health equity among vulnerable populations.

Pathways to food insecurity: Migration, hukou and COVID-19 in Nanjing, China

The COVID-19 pandemic has issued significant challenges to food systems and the food security of migrants in cities. In China, there have been no studies to date focusing on the food security of migrants during the pandemic. To fill this gap, an online questionnaire survey of food security in Nanjing City, China, was conducted in March 2020. This paper situates the research findings in the general literature on the general migrant experience during the pandemic under COVID and the specifics of the Chinese policy of hukou. Using multiple linear regression and ordered logistic regression, the paper examines the impact of migration status on food security during the pandemic. The paper finds that during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, households without local Nanjing hukou were more food insecure than those with Nanjing hukou. The differences related more to the absolute quantity of food intake, rather than reduction in food quality or in levels of anxiety over food access. Migrants in China and elsewhere during COVID-19 experienced three pathways to food insecurity-an income gap, an accessibility gap, and a benefits gap. This conceptual framework is used to structure the discussion and interpretation of survey findings and also has wider potential applicability.

Lockdown, resilience and emergency statecraft in the Cape Town food system

Well before the Covid-19 pandemic, rapidly growing cities of the global South were at the epicenter of multiple converging crises affecting food systems. Globally, government lockdown responses to the disease triggered shocks which cascaded unevenly through urban food systems, exacerbating food insecurity. Cities worldwide developed strategies to mitigate shocks, but research on statecraft enabling food systems resilience is sparse. Addressing this gap, we analyse the case of the African metropolis of Cape Town, where lockdown disrupted livelihoods, mobility and food provision, deepening food insecurity. Employing a vital systems security lens, we show how civil society and state networks mobilised to mitigate and adapt to lockdown impacts. Building on preceding institutional transformations, civil society and state collaborated to deliver emergency food aid, while advocacy networks raised food on the political agenda, formulated proposals, and navigated these through a widened policy window. Emergency statecraft assembled networks and regulatory instruments to secure food systems, enhance preparedness for future disruptions and present opportunities for transition towards more sustainable food systems. However, current food systems configuration enabled powerful actors to resist deeper transformation while devolving impacts to community networks. Despite resilient vested interests and power disparities, advocacy coalitions can anticipate and leverage crises to incrementally advance transformational, pro-poor statecraft.

Research on Extension Design of Emergency Cold Chain Logistics from the Perspective of Carbon Constraints

Extenics has unique advantages in solving contradictions by using formal models to explore the possibility of expanding things and the laws and methods of development and innovation. This paper studies the specific application of the extension strategy generation method in emergency cold chain logistics, in order to solve the problem that the emergency plan is difficult to cover in the face of an emergency. The purpose of this paper is to provide ideas for the generation of strategies to solve the contradictions of cold chain logistics in complex emergency scenarios. Giving full play to the unique advantages of extenics in solving contradictory problems, this paper analyzes the core problems, objectives and conditions of emergency cold chain logistics in four links with the case scenario of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, extends and generates 10 measures to form 36 schemes, and evaluates the combination schemes quantitatively and objectively using the dependent function and superiority evaluation formula. In addition, the consideration of carbon constraints is added to the selection of the scheme, and the specific plan of integrating e-commerce platform, expert guidance, establishing temporary cold storage transfer and contactless distribution is designed. The research results provide support for meeting the needs of emergency logistics schemes in different situations and optimizing the energy efficiency of the scheme while ensuring humanitarian support. At the same time, the application of extenics basic-element formal language also provides a reference for further applying artificial intelligence to the design of emergency logistics schemes.

Boon or Bane? Urban Food Security and Online Food Purchasing during the COVID-19 Epidemic in Nanjing, China

This paper examines the relationship between the rapid growth of online food purchasing and household food security during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in China using the city of Nanjing as a case study. The paper presents the results of an online survey of 968 households in Nanjing in March 2020 focused on their food purchasing behavior and levels of food security during the early weeks of the pandemic. While online food purchasing has increased rapidly in many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, little research attention has been paid to the relationship between online food purchasing and household food security. This paper provides detailed insights into this relationship in China. The medium- and longer-term food security and other consequences of the pandemic pivot to online food purchasing are a fertile area for future research in China and elsewhere.

Preparing for COVID-19: Household food insecurity and vulnerability to shocks in Nairobi, Kenya

An understanding of the types of shocks that disrupt and negatively impact urban household food security is of critical importance to develop relevant and targeted food security emergency preparedness policies and responses, a fact magnified by the current COVID-19 pandemic. This gap is addressed by the current study which draws from the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) city-wide household food insecurity survey of Nairobi city in Kenya. It uses both descriptive statistics and multilevel modelling using General Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) to examine the relationship between household food security and 16 different shocks experienced in the six months prior to the administration of the survey. The findings showed that only 29% of surveyed households were completely food secure. Of those experiencing some level of food insecurity, more experienced economic (55%) than sociopolitical (16%) and biophysical (10%) shocks. Economic shocks such as food price increases, loss of employment, and reduced income were all associated with increased food insecurity. Coupled with the lack of functioning social safety nets in Nairobi, households experiencing shocks and emergencies experience serious food insecurity and related health effects. In this context, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a major negative economic impact on many vulnerable urban households. As such, there is need for new policies on urban food emergencies with a clear emergency preparedness plan for responding to major economic and other shocks that target the most vulnerable.