ap photo In this Tuesday photo, a delivery worker for Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com prepares for the morning round of deliveries from a distribution center in Beijing, China.

BEIJING — Wang Feng, house-bound by China’s virus outbreak, counts on the parka-clad delivery drivers of e-commerce giant JD.com to keep her kitchen stocked.

Demand for online food vendors has surged since China’s government told the public to stay home as part of the most sweeping anti-disease controls ever imposed.

On Tuesday, Wang’s phone buzzed with a text message that a delivery had arrived. The retiree bundled up against the winter cold, put on a face mask and emerged from her apartment complex to collect walnut milk and other goods from shelves on the sidewalk — an anti-virus measure to limit contact with drivers who normally go door to door.

“They work really hard, and it’s dangerous,” said Wang. “Without their services, we would not be able to survive at all.”

JD.com Inc. and rivals including Pinduoduo, Missfresh Inc. and Alibaba Group’s Hema are scrambling to fill a boom in orders while trying to protect their employees.

E-commerce is one of the few industries to thrive after anti-virus controls starting in late January closed factories, restaurants, cinemas, offices and shops nationwide and extinguished auto and real estate sales.

The government is trying to revive economic activity but has told anyone who can work from home to stay there. Some cities have imposed controls that allow only one member of a family out each day. That creates a ready market for online entertainment and shopping.

“I can’t go out and can’t go to work,” said one of Wang’s neighbors, Chen Guang, who was picking up a box of vegetables from the sidewalk shelves under a sign that said, “Contactless Distribution Point.”

Chen, who wore an entry pass for his apartment complex around his neck, said he shops online two to three times a week to replenish kitchen supplies.

JD says over the past month, its drivers delivered 71,500 tons of rice, flour and other grains — 20 times more than the same period last year, — 27 million liters of cooking oil and 50,000 tons of meat, eggs, vegetables and other fresh products.

Pinduoduo said orders for apples, strawberries and other fresh fruit from its 586,000 sellers of agricultural products were up 120% in January.

Disease fears in other Asian markets also have propelled e-commerce demand for food and hygiene supplies. The Korea Economic Daily said online mask sales in South Korea rose 37,000% in January over a year earlier.

Chinese e-commerce companies emerged in a market that lacked credit cards, reliable delivery and other features their counterparts in the United States and Europe take for granted. That required JD, Alibaba and some other competitors to create their own online payments systems or networks of warehouses and delivery drivers.

JD has a 180,000-strong workforce of drivers and warehouse workers and says it is hiring 20,000 more to meet demand. The company said Dada Group, a delivery service in which JD is an investor, is adding 15,000 to its workforce.

E-commerce companies also have been squeezed by the anti-disease controls. Employees were stranded in their hometowns following the Lunar New Year holiday after bus and train services in some areas were suspended to contain the outbreak.

Sun said one of his facility’s employees from Hubei, the province at the center of the outbreak, and two from neighboring Henan province had yet to return.