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Shanghai officials, battling a COVID-19 epidemic, have installed mesh barriers outside several residential structures, triggering further public outrage over a lockdown that has forced many of the city’s 25 million residents to stay at home.
On Saturday, images of white hazmat suit-clad employees blocking doors to housing blocks and even closing off entire streets with nearly two-metre-tall green fence went popular on social media, raising inquiries and protests from locals.
“Isn’t this a fire hazard?” questioned one Weibo user.
“This is extremely insulting of the people’s rights, enclosing them like domestic animals,” added another.
The Shanghai authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters was unable to confirm the veracity of all of the photos and videos.
Shanghai, China’s largest metropolis and most significant economic hub, is tackling the country’s greatest-ever COVID-19 outbreak with a programme that confines all positive patients to central quarantine facilities.
The lockdown, which has lasted more than three weeks for many residents, has fueled frustration about issues accessing food and medical treatment, as well as lost earnings, family separation, conditions at quarantine centres, and suppression of efforts to vent online.
It has also taken a toll on the world’s second-largest economy, with manufacturing efforts to restore output hampered by clogged supply networks and challenges experienced by locked-down citizens returning to work.
The city reported 39 new COVID-19 deaths on April 23, compared to 12 the previous day and by far the largest during the current outbreak.
It did not disclose any COVID-19 deaths during the first few weeks of the most recent case rise, which fueled people’ scepticism about the data. Since then, it has documented 87 COVID-19 fatalities, all within the last seven days.
For Saturday, new case numbers fell somewhat but remained in the tens of thousands. Shanghai had 19,657 new local asymptomatic cases, compared to 20,634 the day before, and 1,401 symptomatic cases, down from 2,736 the day before.
Following the initial outbreak in Wuhan in late 2019, China generally succeeded in keeping COVID-19 at bay by enforcing a “dynamic zero” policy aimed at eradicating all infection chains.
This approach has been increasingly challenged by the emergence of the highly infectious but less lethal Omicron variety, which has prompted a number of towns to implement varying levels of movement restrictions, adding to the economy’s burden.
China reported 20,285 new asymptomatic coronavirus infections on April 23, compared to 21,423 the previous day, with 1,580 symptomatic cases, down from 2,988 the day before.
In Beijing, there were 22 new COVID-19 cases, all of which were locally transmitted, compared to six the day before.
