Shanghai grandmother fights off quarantine staff with her broom
ZERO-COVID strategy upsets many residents
A 95-year-old woman fought off six haz-mat-wearing health-care workers with a broom to avoid being quarantined in Shanghai as China pursues its ZERO-COVID strategy.
Videos widely shared on social media showed the grandmother free herself from lockdown not once but three times, eventually returning home by scaling the wall of a quarantine centre. The unnamed woman was brought to the police’s attention after locals reported her rambling around their Shanghai neighbourhood despite having tested positive.
First, workers in haz-mat suits arrived to take her away, but she fought them off with a broom, one video showed. After her first escape, officers returned to confine her to her flat, sealing the doors shut using steel plates. But another clip later showed her breaking through these using tools.
Eventually, she was taken to a quarantine centre, but escaped from there, too.
“The old lady was taken away yesterday; she climbed the wall of the centre and got back the same evening,” a neighbour posted on social media.
“We all should learn from this lady. There is no need to wait for or depend on anyone, but gain our freedom with action,” one user commented.
She was later taken away by officials. The 95-year-old was not the only elderly person to fight back.
In another video shared widely online, a woman can be seen hitting a person in a haz-mat suit with a stick as they move toward her with a testing swab.
Last week, Shanghai authorities announced they would “isolate whoever needs to be isolated” in a centralized quarantine effort to achieve its ZERO-COVID policy. The city’s 25 million people were barred from going outdoors, leaving a ghost town behind. Those trapped inside reported food and medicine shortages.
The government said: “Our goal is to achieve community ZERO-COVID as soon as possible.
“This is an important sign of winning this major, hard battle against the epidemic ... so that we can restore normal production and order to life.”
Residents have complained the isolation orders, which are issued en masse, have little consideration for individual circumstances.
Zhang Chen, 30, said her four-year-old son and his 84-year-old grandmother were taken to quarantine.
According to Chen the meals were meagre and the building dirty, without enough toilets and with no showers.
“They are patients, not criminals. But here it’s like they’re criminals, and being sent off to suffer,” Chen said.
There were 11 COVID deaths in Shanghai on Thursday, authorities said, taking the tally to 36 — all recorded in the past five days. Many residents have doubted the figures, saying they know people who died in March after catching COVID.