Video

Is China forcefully confining COVID-19 patients in camped metal boxes? | Asianet Newsable

Even as the world grapples with drastically increasing COVID-19 cases owing to the Omicron variant, the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, China has reportedly enforced draconian policies to curb the virus from spreading. If reports are to be believed, China is forcefully confining people suspected of having COVID-19 to cramped metal boxes.   Unverified videos posted on social media platforms show the situation in China, where COVID-19 suspected and/or positive people have been quarantined in metal boxes, including pregnant women, children and the elderly. Asianet Newsable does not vouch for the authenticity of the clips.   According to a report in the Daily Mail, a total of 20 million people are confined to their homes in China after the cities of Anyang and Yuzhou joined the 13 million in Xi'an under quarantine and banned from leaving their home even to buy food.   Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, was locked down late on Monday after two cases of the new Omicron variant were reported. Few residents from cities under lockdown narrated their ordeal to the BBC, saying they were part of a 'big transfer' of thousands of people to the quarantine camps. "There is nothing here, just basic necessities... Nobody has come to check upon us; what kind of quarantine is this? They didn't make any proper arrangements, and so they just carelessly placed us," they added.   Footage widely shared online, reportedly from Xi'an camps, show people in the tiny boxes furnished with a wooden bed and a toilet, where they are forced to live in quarantine for as long as two weeks. The videos also show workers in hazmat suits providing food to the people living in these cells. Some have reportedly complained that they have been left with very little food in the freezing metal cells.   According to a report by Xinhua, Xi'an reported 13 new confirmed locally tran