China's railway network is providing a lifeline to areas struggling to contain the latest outbreaks of COVID-19 across the country, transporting epidemic prevention materials and daily living supplies.

According to China Railway Shanghai Group, 2,054 trains collectively carrying 64,384 metric tons of epidemic prevention materials and daily living supplies were sent to Shanghai by rail from April 1 to 16.

Most of them - 1,951 trains - were carrying daily living supplies weighing as much as 63,263 tons in total. Some 103 trains were carrying 1,121 tons of epidemic prevention and control materials.

As China grapples with its worst COVID-19 outbreak since early 2020, supply shortages are being felt in some of the hardest-hit areas, such as Shanghai. The financial hub's citywide lockdown has caused some households to run short on food and daily supplies.

Since the beginning of the recent outbreak, the group has remained in constant communication with local governments and enterprises in order to understand and optimize freight capacity and open green channels for medical and living supplies, the group said.

The railway group has offered various freight services, including high-speed railway express freight train services, multimode transportation services and nonstop cargo trains to handle epidemic control supplies and ensure goods arrive as soon as possible.

Express freight trains are operated between Beijing and Shanghai every day, and freight trains carrying containers are transported to Shanghai from Guangzhou, Guangdong province and Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Nonstop freight services are operated based on a client's requirements, such as the transport of donated supplies.

Sea-rail intermodal trains carrying containers are meeting the demand for import and export cargo transportation between the Port of Shanghai and many cities in the Yangtze River Delta such as Hefei in Anhui province and Nanjing in Jiangsu province.

Shanghai's COVID-19 outbreak was first identified on March 1. On Sunday, the city of 25 million people reported 2,417 confirmed locally transmitted cases and 19,831 local asymptomatic carriers.