China’s brutal quarantine squads drag suspected virus victims kicking and screaming from homes
THESE are the disturbing scenes from across China as quarantine squads remove people from the streets and their homes and drag them into isolation units.
In one, a terrified woman in Suzhou, near Shanghai, is manhandled by a masked official – the latest victim of an increasingly brutal crackdown by China’s communist authorities to stem the deadly coronavirus.
In another horrific scene – also in Suzhou – a suspected victim is left half-naked as he is wrestled into the clinic by four health workers in ‘hazmat’ suits.
Footage also emerged showing a couple hugging in the street, having been warned they will be taken away and put into quarantine. Health officers in pink protection suits order the pair into an isolation unit on the back of a pick-up truck.
Other recordings show people being dragged from their homes in Wuhan and bundled into mobile health units. The shocking scenes come after weeks in which the Chinese authorities first tried to suppress reports of a mystery illness, and then sought to convince the world it could contain the virus.
But as the outbreak has grown, spreading from Wuhan into surrounding Hubei province and beyond, so the language has changed.
Two weeks ago, as about 50 million people across Hubei province were put into lockdown, President Xi Jinping warned China was facing a ‘grave situation’.
And last Friday, he told Donald Trump the country was fighting a ‘people’s war’.
The latest efforts involve herding the sick, those suspected of being ill and their close contacts, into huge makeshift quarantine camps.
Among the first to raise the alarm was Dr Li Wenliang, 34, who died last Friday after contracting the coronavirus from patients.
In December, he alerted colleagues to what looked like SARS in some patients. A screenshot of his warning went viral on social media, leading to Dr Li being arrested for making ‘false comments’ and ‘spreading rumours’. After admitting the offence he was allowed home. In the meantime, Wuhan officials issued a statement saying there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission, nor that health workers had been infected – despite signs to the contrary.
In late January, after the outbreak had exploded, China’s Supreme People’s Court exonerated Dr Li and other whistleblowers. On Friday, Dr Li’s death became the top trending subject on Chinese social media, with
1.5 billion mentions.