‘76 Days’ documentary paints portrait of Wuhan lockdown
NEW YORK (AP) – “Papa!” screams a hospital worker, covered from head to toe in a Hazmat suit and PPE, in the opening moments of the documentary “76 Days.”
This is in the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan, back in January and February when the city of 11 million went into a two-and-a half-month lockdown and hospitals were overrun. The health worker’s father has just died, and her agony at not being able to sit by his side is overwhelming.
“76 Days,” shot in four Wuhan hospitals, captures a local horror before it became a global nightmare. Given the constraints at the time on footage and information from Wuhan, it’s a rare window into the infancy of the pandemic.
Some of the images document the fear of those early days: a group of patients mill outside the hospital doors, pleading to be let in. Others are by now more familiar: solitary deaths followed by phone calls to family members.