Shanghai Spends Big Money Constructing Makeshift Quarantine Facilities, Tightens COVID-19 Curbs

Employees putting together a huge makeshift quarantine facility that will be used for COVID-19 patients in Shanghai, China on April 7, 2022. (CNS/AFP via Getty Images)

Shanghai plans to invest over one billion yuan ( about $138 million ) to build a quarantine facility on an islet near the city center, according to a tendering document released on Oct. 13.

The construction project, titled “Fuxing Island Preparatory Makeshift Hospital and Isolation Site of Close Contacts,” was awarded to state-owned builder China Communications Construction Corp. for 1.38 billion yuan (about $191 million), according to an official announcement of the Shanghai municipal government.

The announcement is marked “404” and thus not found by a Google search; but Reuters and Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) both reported on the project on Oct. 19.

A 404 error message indicates that the server was not able to retrieve the requested page.

The new facility, upon completion, will have 3,009 rooms with 3,250 beds, according to Reuters and CNA.

The official document didn’t give a time of completion of the project, the Reuters report said.

A netizen commenting on the news of the new makeshift hospital on Fuxing Island said: “Over 400,000 yuan (about $55,000) [construction cost] per bed. How expensive!”

More Makeshift Quarantine Facilities Reported

The Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times accessed several video clips showing that more isolation facilities in the city have been completed and are in use, including Xuhui Makeshift Hospital, Xupu Bridge Makeshift Hospital, Jiangwan Stadium Makeshift Hospital, and Huinan Town Makeshift Hospital.

The Epoch Times wasn’t able to verify the authenticity of the video footage.

According to an April report by state-owned media Shanghai People’s Daily, Jin Chen, a deputy director of Shanghai housing and urban-rural development committee, said that five makeshift hospitals built by the municipal government were completed by April, supplying a total of 88,000 beds. Jin said that district governments in Shanghai had completed the construction of makeshift hospitals that provide 21,000 beds and that makeshift isolation facilities supplying approximately 20,000 beds were being built by the district governments.

The construction of various makeshift hospitals and isolation facilities for positive COVID-19 cases and their close contacts reveal that Shanghai municipal authorities don’t plan to relax their draconian zero-COVID curbs any time soon.

The Epoch Times reached out to the municipal government for comment on Oct. 21 and hadn’t received a response as of press time.

On Oct. 20, Shanghai reported zero positive cases and 13 asymptomatic cases for the day.

As of Oct. 19, over 50 neighborhood communities in Shanghai have been designated as “medium-level risk” areas by the municipal government, which means that residents in these areas are allowed to move around within the communities but are not allowed to leave their communities.

Stringent Lockdowns, Poor Conditions in Makeshift Facilities

Shanghai, with a population of 25 million people, has been locked down sporadically since the end of March this year, the longest lockdown was from the end of March to June 1, causing deaths and mental illnesses of residents, and triggering an outcry and protests from residents.

Xiao Min (pseudonym), a student from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times that she and her schoolmates were transferred from the university to a makeshift isolation site on the evening of Oct. 7.

“The makeshift isolation facility is in poor condition. The toilets are leaking; there is no shower, and there is no hot water,” Xiao Min told The Epoch Times in an interview on Oct. 10.

From a video clip obtained by The Epoch Times, the isolation facility near a Shanghai stadium was seemingly made using modified shipping containers.

Professor Zhang Tianliang, a current affairs commentator based in the United States, said in a video program of his on Oct. 18 that he anticipated Li Qiang, the current CCP party secretary of Shanghai, to be promoted by Xi Jinping at the 20th national congress that is currently underway.

“Li will most likely be promoted by Xi to the position of the first deputy premier,” Zhang said in his program, adding that Xi wants people precisely like Li who faithfully obey Xi’s policies.

Li Jing contributed to this report.