Its inhabitants Shanghai remain under siege amid a draconian “zero covid” mandate that has put some 25 million people in some form lockdowneven when China’s most populous city tried to move towards normalcy.
Countless city workers were forced to sleep at work or in nearby tents, while thousands were evacuated to make way for the sick or taken to massive quarantine centers in an effort to curb the growing infections.
Restrictive measures have sparked protests by citizens tired of prolonged confinement and fear hunger as food stocks fall dangerously.
Shanghai: Authorities suspect dead of ‘non-covid victims’
On Monday, Chinese officials reported the first three deaths from the new epidemic. But the low number fueled suspicions that the government was blatantly calculating the virus’s blood tax, attributing COVID deaths to other circumstances.
“On the mainland, if the dead had underlying diseases, most of them would be classified as dying from other diseases instead of COVID,” Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, told CNN.
“The methods used by Hong Kong and the mainland to calculate deaths are completely different. “More than 90% of the COVID deaths reported in Hong Kong will not be counted on the mainland.”
However, Chinese officials said they were ready to move forward by force to reopen Shanghai for the first time since the March 28 ban began and the full blockade took effect on April 5.
The “white list” that brings black days for employees
The government has created a “white list” of 666 companies that will reopen this week. Among them were automakers Tesla and Volkswagen, as well as major medical companies, according to a copy of the list seen by Reuters.
Many workers will have to live on the spot as part of China’s restricted “closed-circuit management” process to isolate potential cases, two sources told the agency.
Some companies have already put employees to sleep in their workplaces during the siege, with brokers in financial companies setting up tents and ranches next to their offices, the Wall Street Journal notes.
New York University said dozens of employees and suppliers were “trapped” on the Shanghai campus for weeks.
Chinese officials have also opened more than 100 quarantine facilities in the city, including 50,000 beds at a conference center, for residents who tested positive but had no symptoms.
“There are people who cough,” a patient at the center, who identified himself only as Beibei, told the Associated Press. “But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or Omicron. The bathrooms are not very clean. “So many people use them and the volunteers or the cleaners do not succeed.”
Strict restrictions have provoked mass reactions as China battles the largest COVID outbreak since the disease first appeared in Wuhan in late 2019. Shanghai, a city of 25 million people, has reported more than 300,000 cases of end of March, with the vast majority showing no symptoms.
Source: News Beast
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