Just how bad is China Covid outbreak? Leaked viral videos from Shenzhen are scary
The world has finally taken a nervous step outside after hiding for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 threat. The Covid waves have mostly subsided in most countries. But just as things seemed to be getting back to normal, it seems like China has once again been hit by a Covid-19 outbreak.
China is under a new lockdown since March 13, 2022, due to the Omicron outbreak. Several provinces have imposed varying degrees of restrictions.
HOW MANY CASES HAS CHINA REPORTED? The country where the virus originated reported 1,226 locally transmitted Covid cases on Wednesday, March 16, 2022; comparatively lower than Tuesday's count of 1,860 cases.
WHAT HAS THE GROUND RESPONSE BEEN? Covid cases nearly doubled on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, from the Monday count, sending the country into a state of panic. It has been one of the largest outbreaks so far in China since the pandemic began in 2020.
1. The numbers may seem less compared to other countries, but China has had a zero-Covid policy for a while now. Hence, the response on the ground has been quite shocking, to say the least. One video purportedly from Shenzhen city in China, known as the country’s tech hub, showed a number of ambulances lining up on a highway. Apparently, people from the city are being evacuated in scores to quarantine centers after a few cases were reported in the region.
❗️ In Shenzhen, there is a mass evacuation to quarantine camps for the residents of a residential area in which an outbreak of coronavirus was recordedSomething unusual happening in china#China #Shenzhen pic.twitter.com/RyG6SfLmJ5
— OsintTv (@OsintTv) March 16, 2022
The response seems extreme compared to Covid policies across the world, where a whole city is being evacuated just because of a few cases in the vicinity.
2. But it is not the only video from China that is going viral. Another video claims to show a Chinese couple being manhandled by the authorities in hazmat suits for allegedly not possessing vaccine passports.
If you don’t have an updated COVID pass, this is what happens to you in China. pic.twitter.com/bgWQMAxXq6
— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) March 16, 2022
3. Another video from Shenzhen shows massive queues of residents lining up for a PCR test. Residents need to renew their Covid-19 passports every 48 hours with a test to be allowed to stay home, in some areas of China.
Meanwhile in "based" China:Massive queues for PCR tests in Shenzhen - residents need one every 48 hours to renew their Covid passports and be allowed to enter their own homes. pic.twitter.com/I2xuhDBP5H
— Patrick Basedman??? (@patrickbasedmn) March 9, 2022
4. Another chilling video shows healthcare workers in China culling dogs over Covid fears. Though so far, there has not been any case of a dog-to-human Covid infection in the world. In one instance, healthcare workers apparently beat a pet Samoyed (the fluffy white hairy dog) to death over Covid fears. It was not long ago that pet hamsters were mass culled in Hong Kong over Covid fears.
China is under lockdown again. As part of that, they are killing pets in the thousands. There is no evidence of any transmission risk from a dog, but the CCP doesn’t care. All of this was never about preventing COVID anyways. pic.twitter.com/kjBF9ibQJf
— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) March 16, 2022
5. One video also claims that healthcare workers are testing live animals in a market including fish for Covid infection. These animals are meant for consumption.
#China team: Ok let’s test everyone! You mean really everyone? Yes even the fish! ?? ? #covid #fish #Douyin #TikTok #China pic.twitter.com/B8E3TqNrd4
— Augustin Missoffe (@amissoffe) March 12, 2022
Of course, the Covid outbreak and measures have taken an economic hit with global supply chains once again disrupted. Shenzhen for example is the city where the majority of iPhones are assembled.
ZERO-COVID POLICY: China brought in the zero-Covid policy early on during the pandemic, complete with mass lockdowns, mass testing, quarantines, and travel bans. The policy did keep China out of trouble unlike the rest of the world, but for a while. It seems like the Omicron variant has been quite challenging even in the face of one of the world’s toughest policies on Covid-19.
It needs to be noted that China just came out of its Beijing Olympics-tailored policies for Covid-19 that were just as stringent. The policy is not fun for residents, with quarantines in metal boxes and mandatory and frequent testing, the killing of pets, has more or less been a traumatic experience for many.
https://t.co/XRn88ZFLoRIn China's Covid quarantine camps,you need to do two times mandatory temperature checks everyday , to be able to get out of there!2022/03/10 A quarantine camp in Yunnan province pic.twitter.com/WYkqd2boJN
— Songpinganq (@songpinganq) March 10, 2022
China is not the only country reporting a surge in Covid cases. South Korea is facing its worst Covid outbreak since the pandemic began. On Wednesday, March 16, 2022, the peninsular country reported 6,21,000 Covid cases in a single day.