In Beijing and in big cities, the crematoriums are overwhelmed, and the list of disappeared personalities continues to lie down. The authorities have decided to restrict the number of cases where death can be attributed to the disease.
by Frédéric Lemaître (Beijing, correspondent)
A 37 -year -old footballer, Wang Ruoji; A professor of Fine Arts, father of the Mascotte of the 2008 Olympic Games, aged 67, Wu Guanying; A professor of economics from the University of Beijing, Cao Fengqi (77 years old); A 39 -year -old opera singer, Chu Lanlan; A 98-year-old military hero, Zhang Fuqing… The list of known personalities whose Chinese attributes death to the new wave of Covid-19 continues to lie down.
And yet, officially, none of them died of the virus. Wu Guanying, for example? A “severe cold”. This hiatus horrible Internet users. “It is incredible that we are not telling us the truth,” said one. “If it continues, what will distinguish us from the United States?”, Comments another. Not that the United States hid the information but its management of the COVVI-19 is judged as a disaster by number of Chinese. “And Zhang Fuqing, what is it dead? You have to give us the reason,” protests a third internet user. Day after day, the discrepancy increases between the official number of deaths and the reality that many Chinese live.
While we only count in Beijing six deaths linked to the COVVI-19 since the announcements of December 7 ending at the zero covid policy, the crematoriums of the capital are strangely overwhelmed. Hearts everywhere lines up for several hours or even days. Tuesday, December 20, a woman who had gone to find out for the date of cremation of a loved one at the Babaoshan crematorium, west of Beijing, heard was replied that there was no more place before Saturday 25. Lack of a funeral van available, the Beijinges sometimes have no choice but to use their own car. An employee of a funeral company evokes “between 200 and 300 daily cremations”. “Of course it is due to the covid,” he said, judging the absurd question. Some crematoriums seem to work twenty-four hours a day.
The situation is also sometimes dramatic in Beijing hospitals. “My grandfather left on December 19 because of the covid; 95 % of people in the emergency room were old people who have the covid. Some are lucky to have a bed. Others are sitting on simple armchairs to receive Their infusion. In the morgue of the hospital, they must put the yellow bags [which contain the bodies] on the ground because they have no room. I have never seen that “, testifies a Beijing. “At the hospital, they told me that it was time to play my relationships. This is how I managed to have a place in the Babaoshan crematorium the next day,” he admits. Another Internet user from Beijing provides comparable testimony. “I was offered either to wait on January 16 or to go to cremation in Tianjin. I had to play my relationships to have a place in Babaoshan. There are people who are burned in simple boxes, for lack of available coffins. “
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