A little boy, just four years old, waddles in small steps through the corridor of a hospital in China. He is wrapped in a protective suit from head to toe, and on his back is a backpack that is half the size of the child. His parents are not with him. The 4-year-old has to go into quarantine in the sterile environment on his own.
Scenes like this have been going on in China for weeks. But they are almost never shown. The government is mercilessly taking action against the spread of the coronavirus. The nurse Zhu Xiaqing has now filmed in the city of Putian what it looks like when the toughest pandemic measures are used in China, even with small children. Putian is at the epicenter of the latest outbreak of the Delta variant in China, as reported by the news channel “CNN”.
Millions of people have now reacted to the hospital employee’s video on the Internet platform “Weibo”, the Chinese counterpart to Twitter. Many write that it hurts their hearts to see this.
Prevent spread – at all costs
The Chinese government is trying to get the corona situation under control with such strict measures. The bare statistics prove China right: Several outbreaks of different variants have already been nipped in the bud. But the downside of this type of policy can also be clearly seen. The Chinese government knows no mercy.
The concept also means that entire districts are cordoned off as soon as individual cases are registered. Millions of residents are tested within a few days and infected people and their close contacts are quickly isolated in designated facilities. The authorities hardly know any exceptions.
As the nurse Zhu Xiaqing told a local newspaper, emotionally difficult moments are not uncommon due to the rigorous measures. When an ambulance full of children drove to the hospital recently, Xiaqing began to cry. The children were also all wrapped in protective suits. They arrived late because a child refused to leave home and cried for around two hours. (What)