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CHRONICLE OF SHANGHAI. Confinements, isolation, exhaustion… The mental health of the most psychologically fragile Chinese is put to the test.
By Marie Fourier (in Shanghai)
© HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
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HASAt the end of the corridor, a cry. It is noon. Like every day, the neighbor on the landing resumes his screamed litany, never to stop until evening. This level is that of a building converted into a quarantine hotel, where the refurbished apartments accommodate contact cases, put in solitary confinement for seven days. This man whose closed door keeps his anonymity seems to have lost control in the most total indifference. His makeshift neighbours, quarantined like him, are waiting for night to fall to find some peace.
As in all the countries hit by the confinements of recent years, China is paying with its mental health for its zero Covid strategy. Every day brings its new illustrations of nervously exhausted people, more irritable than usual or…
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