After more than a month of restrictions and two weeks of strict confinement, Shanghai residents are increasingly daring to express their dissatisfaction with measures they consider “inhumane”. Because the confinement decreed by the Chinese authorities is very strict, as Elodie Mangin can testify.
From the top of her 25th floor, this French expatriate tells the microphone of BFMTV not to see the slightest car passing in the street. “All you see are men in white coveralls. There are very, very few vehicles, apart from ambulances,” she says.
The streets of Shanghai are indeed completely empty. All travel is prohibited: only those who need to be tested for Covid-19 can go out. The slightest daily gesture is therefore an obstacle course, such as shopping… or walking your dog.
“We have seen images on social networks of very inventive people lowering their dogs by ropes from their apartment building”, underlines Frédéric Schaeffer, correspondent for the newspaper. The echoes.
“We are still apprehensive”
But others weren’t so lucky. Domestic animals have been shot in the street because they are suspected of carrying the virus, many residents report on social networks.
Because Beijing’s “zero-covid” policy is more than radical. Some animals are killed because their masters are positive or case-contact. And residents who test positive for Covid-19 must go to isolation centers … willingly or by force. For nearly three weeks, families have therefore been separated every day.
“It’s the punishment. It’s really the place where you don’t want to go”, testifies François-Xavier Sahuc, expatriate in Shanghai. “We are still in the apprehension of knowing if our apartment contains people who are contaminated or if we are case-contact.
He, like others, explains above all that he lacks prospects. If the growing discontent of the population has prompted the authorities to announce a lifting of restrictions, in fact, it should not happen immediately. Because this Sunday, 19,831 new asymptomatic cases were reported, and 2,417 symptomatic. Also, for the first time since the lockdown was put in place, three people died from the virus.