Covid-19 continues to have significant consequences in China.
Despite very strict confinement, the toll of the epidemic in Shanghai rose this Sunday to 87 dead, while Beijing, the capital, called for “acting without delay” after a rebound in positive cases in the city.
China, which has been facing its worst epidemic outbreak in two years in recent weeks, has since the beginning of April confined almost all of the 25 million in its economic capital, Shanghai, the epicenter of the contagion.
The metropolis announced this Sunday the death of 39 people due to the coronavirus, which brings to at least 87 the total number of deaths since the start of confinement on site.
Since the appearance of the disease, initially detected in central China at the end of 2019, the country has managed to limit the total death toll to less than 5,000 dead, according to official figures, much lower than international counts.
But the Omicron variant hit the inhabitants of Shanghai hard, placed under confinement for an indefinite period, in sometimes Spartan conditions sometimes resulting in tensions and violent scenes with the police.
Difficulties in feeding and caring for themselves
French expatriates have recently testified to being more afraid of the management of the disease than of Covid-19 itself.
“We are not afraid of the virus, but of being sent to centers”, explained in particular a Spanish teacher to Parisian.
Positive people are separated from their families and sent to quarantine centers.
Artificial light is constantly on there and they are not equipped with showers.
Read also“We are not afraid of the virus but of being sent to centers”: French people from Shanghai talk about confinement
The authorities had to face this weekend an online challenge to their management.
A lockdown video has been censored on Chinese social media.
It relays the consequences on the inhabitants of the drastic rules put in place: difficulty in eating, obtaining medicine, going to the hospital, chaos in the quarantine centers.
In addition, the low mortality is a concern, especially since vaccination rates are low among the oldest.
The 39 deaths in the city concern elderly people suffering from pathologies such as hypertension, authorities said.
An "urgent action" demanded in Beijing
Despite strict confinement, nearly 22,000 new positive cases were also recorded in Shanghai on Sunday.
China's largest city has totaled nearly half a million cases since early March.
More than a thousand kilometers away, the capital Beijing has also reported 22 cases and warns that “urgent” action is needed to stop the contagion.
"The situation is serious, the whole city must act without delay," local health official Pang Xinghuo told reporters on Saturday, noting that the virus has probably spread "invisibly" in recent days.