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Coronavirus in China: four-year-old has to be alone in isolation

2021-09-18T12:01:43.673Z


Children who have been infected with Covid-19 should isolate themselves: Such videos from China go viral on the Internet - and anger more people against the government's zero-Covid policy.


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Corona test station in Siming in the province of Fujian: tough zero-Covid strategy

Photo: Zeng Demeng / picture alliance / dpa / XinHua

A child, wrapped in a white protective suit like an astronaut, his face hidden behind a mask and visor, stumbles alone down the corridor of a hospital with a backpack that is much too big and full on his back.

This video recording is currently circulating on social networks in China, where it causes dismay.

As reported by CNN and other media, the clip shows a four-year-old boy who was infected with Covid-19 in Putian in the southern province of Fujian and who was therefore sent to isolation by the authorities - without his parents.

Another video shows a very young and completely veiled child who alone pushes a suitcase over a paved path in the dark.

"That hurts my heart," it says in one of the comments, "my tears come to me" in another.

The videos were recorded by a nurse in a hospital in Putian a few days ago, reports Taiwan News. A local newspaper quoted the woman Tuesday as saying that tears welled up in her eyes when she saw an ambulance full of unaccompanied children arrive. They were all dressed in protective suits and arrived late because a child at home cried so hard and struggled that they had to be lured into the car.

The videos of the hooded children seem to demonstrate again what a tough strategy the Chinese state has been pursuing against the Sars-CoV-2 virus for more than a year and a half.

China - like other Asian countries - has a zero-covid policy that aims to suppress the virus by means of strict entry controls, quarantine measures, mass tests, rigorous contact tracing and lockdowns.

Open debate is not possible

When outbreaks occur, the cuts in people's everyday lives are major: After several new infections with the Delta variant occurred in Putian, the Chinese authorities sealed off the metropolis.

Cinemas, bars and public facilities have been closed.

Residents should only leave the city in exceptional cases.

An open debate about the strategy is currently not possible.

A prominent infectious disease specialist who was skeptical of the official pandemic policy was recently the target of a smear campaign.

Even widespread vaccinations could not eradicate Covid-19, the doctor Zhang Wenhong warned on the online platform Weibo.

"The world must learn to coexist with the virus." This view is taken for granted among scientists, but in China self-appointed patriots have been harassing him for weeks.

Originally, children in Putian were also separated from their parents who had had contact with a person infected with Covid-19, but who tested negative themselves, reports CNN.

This rule was later relaxed.

However, this does not apply to children who have become infected.

At a press conference on Thursday, a Putian government official said the report said that if one of the children's parents was also infected, the hospital would try to put them both on the same ward.

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Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-09-18

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