A woman, surnamed Yin, said she and her husband, who own an Italian restaurant in Changning district, had the idea of making food for frontline medical workers on Lunar New Year's Eve.

Yin said the couple just wanted to give their support to doctors and nurses battling the virus and to tell them that their efforts "will never be in vain".

Many restaurants, which had been fully booked for the Spring Festival holiday week but later experienced cancellations as people avoided gathering together, sold off their stock at cost price.

Zhuang Yuan Lou, a restaurant on Gubei Road in Changning, set up stalls in front of its entrance on Wednesday to sell semi-cooked food to residents in the neighborhood.

The manager, surnamed Zhang, said, "We prepared a large amount of food to sell to residents at lower than market price, to avoid wastage."

Many netizens praised Shanghai for being a "heartwarming city" and said they were looking forward to the safe return of medical workers sent to Hubei to help battle the outbreak.

More than 430 doctors and nurses from Shanghai working in the fields of critical care, respiration and infection have been sent to Wuhan hospitals to treat patients who are critically ill.

On Jan 28, Ji Minjiao, a nurse in the emergency intensive care unit at Renji Hospital Affiliated With Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, waved goodbye to her 3-year-old daughter before heading to Wuhan.

She also left a letter for her, stating: "Mama is sorry that she can't be with you. Like many other nurses, mama's job is to help as many patients as possible to be reunited with their families. When you hear news that the epidemic has been controlled and the battle with the virus has been won, that will be the time that mama will be ready to return home."

The girl told her mother as she departed, "Mama, I also want to be a medical worker when I grow up."

Ji said it was her mission to serve and she had no second thoughts about helping people in Wuhan.