BEIJING, March 30 (TMTPOST) — Several Shijihualian supermarkets in Shanghai have been fined for hiking delivery fees during a Covid-19 resurgence, according to Shanghai’s market regulator.

Shanghai’s market regulator conducted an investigation against a number of Shijihualian supermarkets after receiving complaints from local residents, which claim that the supermarkets are charging customers extremely high fees for delivery service.

The local market regulator discovered that the Shijihualian supermarket on Tibet North Road adjusted the delivery fee standard on a delivery platform, increasing the delivery fee from around 15 yuan to 88 yuan ~ 188 yuan per order from March 27 to March 28. This means that the delivery fee was inflated by ten times. The Shijihualian supermarket on Tibet North Road was fined 20,077.5 yuan.

Shanghai is currently seeing a wave of Covid-19 resurgence in the city. 877 cases were reported in the city from March 16 to March 29. Shanghai has locked down many residential communities and imposed travel restrictions within the city. Food prices have been rising in the city and supply shortage has been reported by many local residents on social media. The local authorities have released guidelines to control the increasing prices of daily supplies, strictly warning against inflating prices during the pandemic. Violators might face a fine of up to three million yuan.

China is sticking to its dynamic zero-Covid policy, which aims to ultimately reduce the number of Covid-19 cases to zero in the country. Under the dynamic zero-Covid policy, local governments across China take Covid-19 resurgence very seriously. Once cases are detected, strict pandemic control and prevention measures such as locking down residential communities, mass testing and travel restriction, etc, will be imposed to curb the spread of the pandemic.

People's Bank of China Shanghai stated that it will guide financial institutions to provide financial support for companies that provide medical equipment and supply, daily necessities and logistic services. It also said that more financial support should be provided for industries that are heavily impacted by the pandemic.