HOMES have been seized by Chinese cops in hazmat suits to be used as Covid isolation units as the world’s strictest lockdown continues.
Shocking footage has emerged showing police in Shanghai scuffling with residents over the harsh coronavirus measures.
Screaming and shouting can be heard as a large number of cops in white hazmat gear order residents at a housing complex about.
A man with his arms raised, as if surrendering, can be seen being forcibly led away by officers.
A voice can be heard saying: “This is Shanghai. The police stormed the compound and dragged regular residents out.”
The report from the South China Morning Post claims flats at the Zhangjiang Nashi complex are to be used for quarantine isolation.
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Residents were told on April 14 they had to move out to make way for Covid-19 patients, the report says.
Tenants staged a protest but were dragged away by cops.
One voice can be heard saying: “Why did you take the elderly people? Release the elderly people.”
As one man is being led away, a woman can be heard screaming: “I beg you please. I beg you.”
It comes as the death of a health worker in Shanghai is being blamed on the city’s severe zero Covid-19 policy.
Qian Wenxiong, 55, a cadre with the city’s Hongkou District Health Commission, died on Tuesday afternoon, according to a statement published on its official Weibo account on Thursday, the Post reports.
“We are deeply saddened and mourn his tragic death. The commission has been the first to express condolences and concern to his family at home, and is helping handle the aftermath and other matters. Thank you all for your concern,” it said.
‘UNBEARABLE PRESSURE’
While there has been no official confirmation, the view online is that he took his own life due to the “unbearable pressure” at the front line of the country’s health crisis.
Cops have not denied that he killed himself, as authorities have done in other cases.
Shanghai is struggling to contain the outbreak with more than 20,000 Covid cases a day being reported over at least 10 days.
On April 14, 27,719 cases alone were reported.
Most of the city’s 25million residents are trapped in their homes due to the strict policies and many have been complaining to local Communist Party officials responsible for carrying out the stern health protocols.
Numerous phone conversations have been posted online with local officials in the city expressing their despair and exhaustion from having to implement the zero Covid-19 policy.
They are responsible for carrying out regular mass testing in residential areas and relocating anyone who tests positive to makeshift hospitals that have been constructed in recent weeks.
Many have threatened to resign as they work around the clock burdened with an arduous work load and the complaints of locals who are angry as they struggle to buy food and essential items during the lockdown.
“I am speechless. The mortality rate of the virus is not high, but there are a lot of people who die because of epidemic prevention,” one Weibo user said.
HOSPITALS CLOSED TO NON-COVID PATIENTS
During the lockdown, many hospitals have been closed or have greatly restricted access to non-Covid patients.
Reports have surfaced of people dying due to delayed treatment for patients suffering from other conditions, as well as higher rates of mortality among the chronically ill and elderly.
The paper says in late March a Shanghai nurse died following an asthma attack when she was turned away by the hospital she worked at because its emergency unit was closed by the Covid-19 requirements.
Earlier this month, it emerged Covid-infected babies were being taken and put segregation cots.
The toddlers can be heard screaming as they are kept apart from their worried parents.
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Under China’s draconian Covid rules, anyone found positive – even if asymptomatic or with a mild infection – must be isolated from non-infected people.
Diplomats from more than 30 countries have written to the Chinese foreign ministry demanding an immediate end to the brutal policy.
