Twenty-five million Chinese under a rigid COVID lockdown in Shanghai find themselves trapped in homes without food and water, scream.
Chinese starving, without food and water for weeks, revolt
Trapped in their homes for weeks without food and water, without medical help, and being unable to treat sick family members, China’s most populous city, Shanghai, has been under severe lockdown orders in an effort to control a coronavirus outbreak. Finally, in sheer desperation, the twenty-five million Shanghai residents in frustration scream out from the windows of their homes in the towering buildings, in a desperate and angry cry for help.
Citizens then rushed out on the streets defying COVID restrictions and raided supermarkets for food and provisions while the security forces tried to arrest them and for some of them, arrests were welcome because at least in jail, they would get food! They wrestled with the police in large numbers.
The Chinese authorities have apologized to the people, however, have been unable to provide for the large masses. Unlike the Wuhan lockdown on 23 January 2020, which was systematically managed with food and provisions, the Shanghai lockdown was a disaster.
COVID crisis in Shanghai, China
People contracting COVID had been put into makeshift quarantine centers and temporary hospitals for an indefinite period unsure when they will be allowed to leave.
Shanghai, a city of 25 million, and China’s economic center crumbled under the country’s biggest outbreak since the peak of the first virus wave in Wuhan over two years ago.
Authorities are racing to construct tens of thousands of beds to house COVID-19 patients as daily infections top 20,000 — small compared with parts of the world getting used to living with the virus.
Some stuck in Shanghai, locked down since early April, have flooded social media with complaints of food shortages and of authoritarian officials forcing them into state quarantine, challenging China’s ‘Great Firewall’ of censorship which wipes dissenting views from the internet almost as soon as they appear.
Late Thursday, videos circulated showing residents outside a compound shouting at ranks of officials holding shields labeled “police”, as the officers tried to break through their line.
In one clip, police appear to make several arrests as the residents accuse them of “hitting people.” In one live-streamed video, a woman can be heard weeping and asking “why are they taking an old person away?” as officials appeared to put someone into a car.
Some Shanghai residents have poured their anger at the handling of the virus onto the internet voicing anger at the authorities for allowing food shortages as well as heavy-handed controls, including the killing of a pet corgi by a health worker and the policy of separating infected children from their virus-free parents, though the policy has been softened.
Other videos and audio clips have indicated increasing desperation among city inhabitants, including some showing residents bursting through barricades demanding food.
In one unverified viral video, a drone flying through a residential area broadcasting a message urging residents to “control your soul’s desire for freedom”.
The vast majority of virus cases detected each day are in people with no symptoms — and there have been no deaths officially reported in the city since this outbreak.
Shanghai health official Wu Qianyu said on Thursday that there were only nine severe cases, mostly older patients with underlying health conditions.
However, the Chinese government has vowed the city “would not relax in the slightest”, preparing over a hundred new quarantine facilities to receive every person who tests positive.
Shanghai has the New COVID Variant Omnicron XE. What Is It?
The new COVID variant XE is recombinant of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 sublineages of COVID-19 and the hybrid strain was first detected in the UK in January. According to the WHO, it could be the most transmissible variant yet and is estimated to spread 10 percent more easily than BA.2, which itself was more transmissible than the original Omicron.
A doctor explains the symptoms, and the severity of the Omicron XE COVID variant explaining the symptoms are different from Omicron where the new sub-variant XE appears to share all of Omicron’s symptoms. It is generally milder and not very severe.
Precautions are essentially the same. Everyone has been aware of these precautionary measures for the past two years. While local state governments have lifted the mask criteria, it is wiser to continue to wear masks, sanitize, avoid crowded locations, and just maintain health. Ensure that we are completely vaccinated, and if one is eligible for a booster dose, he or she should receive it.
Why China Handled Omnicron XE Badly
The draconian measures of the shutdown in Shanghai were disastrous. It may have worked in Wuhan with a population of 11 million because the authorities organized it better, ensuring food and water, and provisions, which did not happen in Shangai. Omnicron XE was terribly managed surmised due to panic by the Chinese government. Instead of allowing quarantine at home with the freedom of allowing residents to get their food, water, and provisions from markets in restricted numbers following masking and distancing protocols, the complete hard lockdown depriving them of leaving their homes was probably enforced out of sheer fear of the virus spreading and was uncalled for leading to a humanitarian crisis and this is the horrendous drawbacks of dictatorship versus democracy.
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