As China imposes draconian curbs, people contracting COVID-19 forcefully confined to cramped metal boxes
New Delhi: People contracting COVID-19 in China are being forcefully confined to cramped metal boxes with videos of quarantine camps going viral on social media.
China largely controlled its initial outbreak with a mix of lockdowns, border closures and mass testing, but a spike in COVID-19 in some major cities just weeks before the Beijing Winter Olympics is a serious cause of concern for the Communist country.
Few residents from cities under lockdown narrated their ordeal to the BBC saying they were part of a ‘big transfer’ of thousands of people to the camps.
Pregnant women, children and the elderly have also been sent to the camps in Xi’an in Central China’s Shaanxi Province and they are forced to stay there for as long as two weeks.
Video clips going viral on social media show people living in tiny metal boxes with wooden beds and attached toilets.
According to a report by the Daily Mail, 20 million have been confined to their homes in China and they can’t even leave their home even to buy food.
The Mail reported that 5.5 million people in China’s Anyang were locked down late Monday after two cases of the omicron variant were reported.
According to a report by Xinhua, Xi’an reported 13 new confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Monday.
The city had registered 2,017 local cases amid the latest resurgence. Of these, 417 had recovered by Monday.
The city kicked off a new round of mass testing in key areas at 9 a.m. Tuesday to further curb the spread of the virus, said Lyu Yongpeng, deputy director of the city’s health commission.
On Saturday, Xi’an had downgraded the classifications of five areas from medium-risk for COVID-19 to low-risk. The city currently has a total of three high-risk areas and 55 medium-risk areas.
Meanwhile, a leading epidemiologist has projected that another major resurgence in the number of COVID-19 cases in Xi’an is unlikely.