The capital has faced its strongest contamination since the start of the pandemic. The omicron variant has infected more than 1,300 people since the end of April, leading to the indefinite closure of restaurants, schools and tourist sites.
Le Monde with AFP
On Chinese social networks, some evoke window evacuation scenes recalling war . Thousands of inhabitants of Beijing – 21 million inhabitants – were forcibly sent in quarantine on the night of Friday 20 to Saturday May 21, after the discovery of 26 cases of COVID -19 in their residence, according to images and An official opinion widely shared on social networks.
More than 13,000 inhabitants of the Nanxinyuan residential complex, in the south-east of the capital, although negative in the virus, were transported overnight to isolation hotels and threatened with reprisals if they resisted.
“Experts have decided that all Nanxinyuan residents will be subjected to forty from midnight on May 21 for seven days,” said the announcement of the health authorities of the Chaoyang district. “Please cooperate, otherwise you will suffer the legal consequences,” they added.
Photos on the Socials show hundreds of people queuing with their luggage in the dark to get into coaches in front of the residence. “Some of us have been locked up for twenty-eight days since April 23, and we have all been tested negative since,” said a resident on Weibo. “Many of my neighbors are old or have young children.”
The inhabitants were asked to pack their clothes and essential goods, and informed that their accommodation was going to be disinfected, according to discussions on Weibo.
Beijing has faced its strongest contamination since the start of the pandemic. The Omicron variant has infected more than 1,300 people since the end of April, leading to the indefinite closure of restaurants, schools and tourist sites.
Chaotic confinement in Shanghai
China pursues a draconian policy of “zero covid”: closure of borders, massive tests, confinements of whole cities and forced quarantines for contact cases.
Last month, thousands of Shanghai residents were sent to improvised quarantine centers hundreds of kilometers away, while the metropolis of 25 million inhabitants was fighting an epidemic outbreak.
On Weibo, Internet users expressed their concern on Saturday to see Beijing adopt an approach similar to that of Shanghai, where the inhabitants suffer a sometimes chaotic containment, which has deprived many people of adequate access to food and care .
“It is exactly the same as in Shanghai, the first step is to cut water and electricity, then require keys … then disinfect houses. Electric devices, furniture in wood, clothes, food … they are all damn “, can be read in a comment, which displayed more than 300 likes.