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Residents of places around China under COVID lockdowns complain of a lack of food and other necessities, at least 30 areas have issued orders requiring tens of millions of people to remain indoors during partial or complete lockdowns.
Ahead of the Communist party convention in October, authorities are trying to contain local outbreaks.
Strict lockdowns are necessary under China’s zero-COVID policy, even if just a few cases are known to have occurred. China reported 949 new cases of COVID on Monday nationwide.
Citizens’ unusual public opposition to the program has been raised, and it has also been charged with hindering economic expansion.
In Xinjiang, a weeks-long lockdown in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture close to the Kazakhstani border has led to helpless people pleading for assistance online.
One post featured a video of an emotional Uyghur guy lamenting the fact that his three children hadn’t eaten in three days.
A shared web document with over 300 urgent demands for food, medicine, and sanitary pads was extensively disseminated in Yining city, the capital of Ili.
Residents of the area are a mixture of Kazakh, Uyghur, and Han Chinese.
In Xinjiang, China was charged with “serious human rights breaches” against Uyghurs and other primarily Muslim minorities earlier this month in a long-awaited UN report. According to rights organizations, over a million Uyghurs have been imprisoned against their will. In addition, Beijing claims to be using its network of camps as a weapon against terrorists.
Authorities in the southwest Guizhou province unexpectedly shut off a section of Guiyang, the provincial capital, trapping 500,000 people inside their homes with no time to prepare.
According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, buildings’ elevators were turned off to prevent people from leaving.
Residents bemoaned their inability to purchase items online because there is no home delivery option, and the supermarkets are still closed. Residents claim that either the government wants them to die or that they would rather treat people like animals.
The largest city to experience a lockdown since Shanghai saw two months of restrictions earlier this year in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.
Only those of its 21 million inhabitants who can provide proof of a negative COVID test are permitted to leave the city or enter it to make purchases.
COVID lockdowns persist throughout China
It comes after a severe heatwave that affected the area and an earthquake earlier this month, both of which caused locals who were attempting to evacuate their houses to encounter closed doors.
According to local officials, limitations will be lifted in five city neighborhoods starting on Monday.
Multiple extended lockdowns have been implemented before the National Party Congress in mid-October—a once-every-five-year occasion where prominent politicians would convene for the first time since the pandemic struck.
Read Also: China extends COVID lockdown in Changdu Metropolis
Party leaders are under extreme pressure to ensure that the event goes off without a hitch, and even modest COVID clusters are considered a threat.
Chinese media reported on Monday that a few cases had been found on Beijing university campuses while students were returning from other provinces.
It is the final large economy in the world trying to eradicate COVID outbreaks completely. They argue that this is important to stop the virus from spreading and overrunning hospitals.
Johns Hopkins University claims that less than 15,000 fatalities have been officially reported in China since the outbreak started.
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