Shanghai is the city most affected by the recent outbreak in China. Several facts show that the authorities, the health system and the population are completely in another dimension. Between the draconian measures in force and the occurrence of several news items, the Chinese city is thus far from taking the path of openness and "living with the virus" of Covid-19.
With its 24.9 million inhabitants (2020), the Chinese city of Shanghai is one of the largest megacities in the world. This city thus embodies, without much surprise, the most important epidemic center in the country since the strong comeback of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 a few weeks ago. It must be said that for the past two years, China has been rather spared from the virus and has always tried to apply the zero Covid policy.
For almost a month, however, the Shanghainese population has been under very strict confinement and must comply with numerous measures. The government therefore continues to practice its zero Covid policy to the detriment of individual freedom, in particular by isolating manu militari any person tested positive, even asymptomatic. These people then end up in collective quarantine centers . However, in these establishments, the level of hygiene and comfort is not always there.
Recently, even people who tested negative have been sent to solitary confinement, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from their homes. These people have the misfortune to live in a housing estate or residence where the authorities have observed many positive cases. The population of Shanghai is thus exhausted.
Signs of psychosis and the dramatic side of the situation, two news items have very recently made the city of Shanghai talk. According to an article published by The Guardian on May 3, 2022, an elderly man declared dead emerged alive from the body bag in which he had been placed, on his way to the morgue . A resident filmed the scene which obviously sparked a major wave of indignation on the Internet.
According to a New York Post publication on May 4, another incident has also stirred social media. Indeed, a homeless immigrant worker in her fifties lived in a phone booth for almost a month. She had indeed made the decision to cloister herself in this cramped space with her dog from the start of the outbreak. This lady went out very occasionally to air her blanket and walk her animal. Finally, the police removed her before offering her accommodation, which she refused.
