How Wuhan Food Deliveries are Saving Millions from a Crisis

It’s no secret that Coronavirus, recently labeled COVID-19, is causing massive panic and precautions around the world. In the epicenter of it all, Wuhan is under a city-wide quarantine and has become eerily similar to a ghost town. Streets once bustling with vibrant life are now completely empty and virtually all businesses and restaurants are closed down. Since this is a food blog, I’ve always wondered how the people of Wuhan are getting their food since the start of the quarantine. If supermarkets are cleared out and restaurants are closed, is the 11.08 million people of Wuhan left to fend for themselves? Well, I recently came across a Chinese based company called Meituan and they are known to be one of the top food delivery services in the area. Think of it as similar to DoorDash, the popular U.S. based food delivery app. It works like this: a customer would order food on the app, then a delivery person would drop it off at a specified area such as your doorstep. This process is based on this idea of “contactless delivery” to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Still, this brings up questions on if this process is truly “contactless.” How do we know the people preparing the food aren’t potentially infected? If the delivery person has contact with the delivery bag/box, can’t they infect someone? Is it even safe for delivery persons to be out in the streets at a time like this? Well, Meituan has tried its very best to address these concerns. First, they have made sure that every person involved in preparing the food isn’t infected. This means that they check and record the temperature of every single person that has contact with the food. Next, they do constant temperature checks of the delivery person as well through a handheld temperature sensor. While some may still be concerned about the risk, I believe that services like Meituan are too important to not use. As of now, it seems that it’s the only reliable and consistent way to get food at a reasonable price without having to leave the safety of your home. It’s also good to see that prices for food are still somewhat reasonable. By now, I would’ve expected food prices to surge just because of the lack of consistent food sources. Still, the quarantine has no end in sight and I wonder if Meituan is able to keep up their services throughout the duration of the quarantine. I’m also questioning on why it requires services like Meituan for citizens to get food but the government isn’t there to provide food. It shouldn’t take a private companies efforts in order for 11 million people that are quarantined to receive basic necessities. If the government isn’t able to provide food at a suitable level, are they even providing other necessities like toiletries and cleaning supplies? It’s definitely a scary time to be in Wuhan right now and I hope that many companies like Meituan step up and provide services to those in need right now. Hopefully, we see an end to this virus soon.