Chinese residents living in the northeastern city of Changchun are pleading for help online after being told by local authorities not to step outside their homes because of COVID-19 prevention measures.
One resident seeking help was Mr. Zhao. Writing on China’s Twitter-like Weibo on March 30, he stated that his mother tested positive for COVID-19 two days earlier, while he, his wife, and their baby all had COVID-19 symptoms.
“Now, three adults and a 5-month-old child are all having a fever of 38.8 degrees Celsius [101.8 F],” he wrote, adding that he had made numerous calls, but neither his community committee nor the local disease prevention authorities offered any help.
“We don’t have any medicine or food at home. ... [Our front door] has been sealed for four days. And our community committee has not sent us any supply,” he said. “I don’t want to see my child die at home. I hope people share my post so we can get some help.”
Hours after putting up his online post, Zhao told The Epoch Times that local authorities had totally ignored them.
“We asked that our child undergo a nucleic acid test, but the community committee refused. My wife and I also asked to be tested, but the request was turned down,” he said. “Our symptoms are just like what my mother had when she first tested positive.”
Zhao was also critical of how his mother had been treated. He said nobody had come to move his mother to an isolation ward or send her to a medical facility for treatment.
Community officials have also refused to send them food, according to Zhao.
A spike in infection cases prompted health officials in Changchun to announce harsh lockdown measures on March 11, placing all communities under “seal-off management” and requiring businesses to suspend their operations. Additionally, all residents in the city were to be tested for COVID-19.
Such mass testing is not limited to Changchun but has been seen throughout China. The Chinese regime is using mass testing to go after every virus case, isolate people exposed to the virus, and lock down areas where cases are reported, in a policy known as “zero-COVID.”
One resident in Changchun got the attention of local health officials after asking for help online.
Mrs. Sun put up a Weibo post on March 30, saying that her husband had already tested positive for COVID-19. However, local officials hadn’t come to her home to screen family members. Now she had COVID-19 symptoms, and so did her four children.
Sun expressed hope that everyone in her family would soon be tested for COVID-19 and receive medical treatment.
Lin Wei (pseudonym), a relative of Sun, told The Epoch Times that local officials went to Sun’s house and tested everyone after Sun posted her demands online.
Lin said that if officials had acted more quickly, going to Sun’s house sooner and isolating everyone, the children might not have been infected.
Her husband was confirmed to have contracted the virus on March 28, Lin said. The next day, an official went to Sun’s home but was only willing to screen two of the four children. The very same day, local authorities sealed off the front door of Sun’s home, preventing the family from going outside.
Then Sun began calling multiple government offices seeking help, including the mayor’s office, but nobody was willing to address her family’s problems, Lin said.
According to Lin, Sun, her husband, and their children remain in a dire situation—they are short on food and medicine, and they have no idea if they'll get medical treatment.
Lin criticized officials in Sun’s community, saying they don’t really care what happens to Sun and her family.
Friends Read Free