Unprecedented neglect cruelty as China tries to dial down COVID-19 cases

Beijing, May 05: Leaked videos on the social media show that residents of Shanghai at the hands of China's Zero-COVID-19 policy are being subject to unprecedented neglect, mistreatment and abuse.
National Review, a US-based magazine reported, "disgusted as pandemic prevention, these violations have exposed the cruel and inhumane side of Communist China's system.

News agency ANI said that many leaked videos show the enforcers in white medial isolation gowns beating up people, taking them away or welding doors and shutting entryways with metal bars.

The cruel treatment by the Chinese government has raised awareness in people in regard to their political and civil rights. Not only in Shanghai, but across the country people are now speaking out for themselves and their communities, the report also said.

All restaurants in Beijing are closed to dine-in customers from Sunday through the end of the holiday on Wednesday, open only for takeout and delivery. Parks and tourist attractions in the Chinese capital are limited to 50% of their capacity. The Universal Studios theme park in Beijing, which opened last year, said it had shut down temporarily.

The pandemic situation varies across the vast nation of 1.4 billion people, but the Transport Ministry said last week that it expected 100 million trips to be taken from Saturday to Wednesday, which would be down 60% from last year. Many of those who are travelling are staying within their province as local governments discourage or restrict cross-border travel to try to keep out new infections.

China is sticking to a strict zero-COVID policy even as many other countries are easing restrictions and seeing if they can live with the virus. Much of Shanghai - China's largest city and a finance, manufacturing and shipping hub - remains locked down, disrupting people's lives and dealing a blow to the economy.

The major outbreak in Shanghai, where the death toll has topped 400, appears to be easing. The city recorded 7,872 new locally transmitted cases on Saturday, down from more than 20,000 a day in recent weeks. Outside of Shanghai, only 384 new cases were found in the rest of mainland China.

Beijing, which has tallied 321 cases in the past nine days, is restricting activity to try to prevent a large outbreak and avoid a city-wide lockdown similar to Shanghai. Individual buildings and housing complexes with coronavirus cases have been locked down.

Visitors to many office buildings and tourist sites such as the Great Wall must show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the previous 48 hours.

Online booking agency Ctrip said last week that people were booking travel to cities that were mostly virus-free, such as Chengdu in Sichuan province and the nearby city of Chongqing. Other popular destinations included Wuhan, where the world's first major outbreak of COVID-19 occurred in early 2020. About half the orders on the Ctrip platform were for travel within a province.