Cramped cells, eviction at night: Videos claim to show China’s harsh quarantine policy

Because of the approaching Winter Olympics, China is acting more aggressively on its “zero-tolerance” policy for COVID-19. (Screengrab from video tweeted by @songpinganq)

Videos have emerged on social media purportedly depicting China’s harsh quarantine conditions amid its efforts to contain outbreaks of COVID-19 ahead of the Winter Olympics in February.

The series of videos, shared by a Twitter handle called Songpinganq, showed rows of metal boxes and their cramped indoor spaces. These spaces are reportedly quarantine camps.

Millions of chinese people are living in covid quarantine camps now!
2022/1/9 pic.twitter.com/wO1cekQhps

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— Songpinganq (@songpinganq) January 9, 2022

The Twitter handle that shared the videos claimed that children were being locked in these quarantine centres alone.

More videos tweeted by the user showed workers in protective suits allegedly forcibly taking people to quarantine centres and residents being made to board buses to camps at night. Moneycontrol cannot verify the authenticity of the videos.

China is dealing with outbreaks of the coronavirus in six cities, according to AP. One of outbreaks, caused by the Omicron variant, is in Tianjin, which is 100 kilometres away from the capital city Beijing.

Because of the approaching Winter Olympics, China is acting more aggressively on its “zero-tolerance” policy for COVID-19, according to the news agency.

Over 20 million people in China are under some form of lockdown, according to AP. Xian city, with a population of 14 million, is under total lockdown.

The BBC had reported earlier this month that residents of a housing compound in the southern part of the city were taken to a quarantine facility after midnight.

According to a CNN report on January 11, 4,000 students in another city, Anyang, loaded buses to go to quarantine centres, while being dressed in hazmat suits.

(With inputs from AP)