More than 13,000 residents, who tested negative, were transported overnight to isolation hotels and threatened with reprisals if they resisted.
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Posted on 21/05/2022 09:13
Update and 21/05/2022 11:11
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Thousands of Beijing residents were forcibly sent into quarantine overnight from Friday May 20 to Saturday May 21, after 26 cases of Covid-19 were discovered in their residences. More than 13,000 residents of the Nanxinyuan residential complex in the southeast of the capital, although tested negative for the virus, have been transported to isolation hotels and threatened with reprisals if they resist. “Please cooperate, otherwise you will suffer the legal consequences”reads the announcement from the district health authorities.
Photos on social media showed hundreds of people queuing with their luggage in the dark to board coaches outside the residence. “Some of us have been locked up for 28 days since April 23, and we’ve all tested negative since”complained a resident on the Weibo social network. “Many of my neighbors are elderly or have young children.”
Beijing is facing its biggest outbreak of contamination since the start of the pandemic. The Omicron variant has infected more than 1,300 people since the end of April, leading to the indefinite closure of restaurants, schools and tourist sites. China is leading a draconian policy called “Zero Covid” with the closure of borders, massive tests, the confinement of entire cities and forced quarantines for contact cases.
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