image source,PROVIDED
The death of three-year-old Tuo Wenxuan has sparked outrage on social media.
A three-year-old boy in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province died of gas poisoning during the COVID-19 blockade.
After the incident sparked massive online criticism, the Lanzhou City Government admitted on Thursday (November 3) that the incident revealed that the relevant departments’ bailout mechanism was not smooth and promised to “treat severely” those. who have not done their job.
The boy was poisoned by carbon monoxide in a shop that used a liquefied gas stove in Xiyuan Street, Qilihe, Lanzhou, Tuesday (November 1), butcher shop closed due to the blockade.
The boy’s father told the BBC that during the request for help the authorities “did not act”, delaying the time to reach the hospital.
Local police reported that when police arrived, two people were poisoned and passed out on the spot. One of the children was not breathing at the time and died after being sent to hospital for help. The other person’s vital signs were stable after being sent to the hospital.
Local Lanzhou officials on Wednesday stressed the need to “resolutely prevent epidemic prevention and control from being simplified across the board.”
Experts told the Chinese BBC that the “secondary disaster” caused by tight control of the epidemic prevention policy in mainland China could be a bigger crisis than the new crown epidemic itself.
“No one cares”
Local residents told the BBC that the residential area where the accident occurred has been blocked since the beginning of October – and mainland China now refers to blocking measures for the prevention and control of the new outbreak. crown as “silent management”.
Local police reported receiving assistance from the masses at 1:43 pm on Tuesday and arrived at the scene 14 minutes later. After investigation and identification, the cause of the incident was “the misuse of a liquefied gas stove,” resulting in death from carbon monoxide poisoning. “
The boy’s father, Tuo Shilei, told the BBC he could not send his son out of the residential area blocked by outbreak prevention and control for more than an hour.
“The cause of the child’s death was an accident, but in the process of asking for help, some people have avoided it and inaction is too much prevention of epidemics,” Tuo Shilei said in a telephone interview with the BBC. .
He said that around noon on the day of the incident, their family was locked up in a community store and, due to the “bad condition”, they used a liquefied gas stove to boil water to heat an unheated room. .
Later, he heard his wife fall and “struggle”. He immediately turned off the gas stove and performed CPR on his wife. After his wife’s condition improved, he discovered that his son had also been poisoned.
According to Tuo Shilei, her son was in a coma but was breathing and during this time he sent a distress message to the community and personally went to lock the bayonet to ask for help from two community staff members on duty.
“One of you said you didn’t have a cell phone, and the other said you were looking for the community and not us,” said Tuo Shilei.
He said they also asked him to show the latest nucleic acid test results, which he didn’t do.
Then he went home to give first aid to his son, and said that some people came to help him after seeing the video he had posted on the internet and that his son was able to open his eyes for a while. .
He said the crowd helped find a car and call an ambulance at that time, but for over an hour “there was no one in charge” so they took the boy to the bayonet of the block and after found there was still no help, “I forced my way. Come out.”
It was reported that the ambulance arrived at the community after their departure.
Tuo Shilei’s son, Tuo Wenxuan, was taken to hospital about a 10-minute drive from the community, but the rescue was unsuccessful and was pronounced dead shortly after 3pm.
resumption of public indignation
image source,Getty Images
Lanzhou has been subjected to epidemic prevention measures since the beginning of October.
On Tuesday night, local Lanzhou residents took to the streets to express their anger. The video sent by locals to the BBC showed police officers present to maintain order, including a man being pulled and kicked by a group of men in black uniforms.
Chinese media reported that Zhu Tianshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Lanzhou Municipal Party Committee, visited residential neighborhoods, hospitals and food supply centers on Tuesday to “coordinate and solve” problems. to prevent the epidemic, but it is not known whether he went to Xiyuan Street in Qilihe, where the poisoning occurred.
China News Weekly’s official Weibo account quoted Zhu Tianshu as stressing that in preventing and controlling the new corona epidemic, it is necessary to “resolutely prevent simplification and uniqueness for all”, and also stated that “doing so resolutely does not delay the problems that can be solved “.
Since the global pandemic of the new corona epidemic, the epidemic prevention policy of “dynamic compensation” in mainland China has continued. The irregular mandatory blocking and large-scale nucleic acid isolation and testing measures have caused enormous costs to the economy and accumulated public grievances.
From time to time there have also been accidents with casualties caused by the prevention measures of the “dynamic cleansing” epidemic. In September, a bus transporting blockade area residents to the mandatory overnight isolation site in Guizhou accidentally capsized on the highway early in the morning. causing the deaths of 27 people, while the province has recorded two coronavirus deaths since the outbreak began, according to official data.
from this yearMeasures to prevent major epidemics in ChinaCausedControversial event
- In April 2022, during the lockdown in Shanghai, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy was diagnosed in the Jinshan district, who was forced to be sent to compulsory solitary confinement on his own because his parents could not isolate themselves together. of children from the district public health center were put on a fence. The scene in tears over the lack of breastfeeding in bed sparked controversy in the public opinion;
- In early September, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake occurred in Luding, Sichuan, and the provincial capital Chengdu, but when residents fled, they were asked to stay indoors due to the prevention and prevention policy. blocking of epidemics;
- In mid-September, Chinese media reported that a 12-year-old girl in Liuqiao Village, Tianlu City, Guixi City, Jiangxi Province was sexually assaulted by the village party branch secretary. behind the baby. At the time of the accident, her parents were forcibly quarantined in a makeshift hospital. . Authorities reported that the suspect had been arrested, but denied that the victim’s parents had been quarantined;
- On September 18, an isolation and transfer vehicle for people affected by the outbreak in Guiyang City, Guizhou, sent people to a mandatory quarantine location hundreds of kilometers away overnight. Qiannan highway early in the morning, resulting in 27 casualties. dead and 20 injured;
- In October, a video of a 14-year-old girl in Ruzhou, Henan Province died after being sent to an isolation facility, and a video of her shaking and convulsing in bed sparked outrage on Chinese social media.
China’s top leader Xi Jinping, who has entered a historic third term, told the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that he will adhere to the “dynamic zero” policy.
The poisoning death of a Lanzhou boy sparked outrage on Chinese social media. As of Thursday, hashtags related to the incident have had more than 150 million views on Sina Weibo.
“He was only three years old and the epidemic was three years old, and it was his whole life!” Said a commentary on the incident on Sina Weibo.
There are also some comments that the current local outbreak situation may not be clear and the outbreak prevention policy cannot be denied due to this incident.
The experts pointed out that the current public opinion in China shows that although there are signs that some people want some changes in the epidemic prevention policy in mainland China, the general fear of a new corona epidemic is still very serious, the which could hinder the relaxing epidemic prevention process.
“There are now signs of wanting to change (the epidemic prevention policy), but if the country is that big, there will be trouble changing it too quickly,” said Jin Dongyan, professor of biochemistry at the University of Hong Kong on the BBC. in Chinese.
He pointed out that the Chinese people have been displaying tremendous fear of the new corona virus for several years under the epidemic prevention propaganda and are “afraid to stay on the ground” in terms of epidemic prevention policy, but in reality, relaxation epidemic prevention in many parts of the world does not mean “lying down”.
He said the policy should not be changed too quickly, but only “step by step” to avoid a “big panic”.
But at the same time he believes that changing the vision of the epidemic is a necessary step, otherwise “if it continues like this, there will only be social unrest”.
He said the “secondary disaster” of mainland China’s epidemic prevention policy is already serious and the Lanzhou boy incident is just another.
Tuo Shilei said he wanted to hold affected personnel accountable.
“All the personnel involved, where is the problem, and why didn’t they come to the rescue immediately?” He said.
He spoke on Chinese social media about what happened to him and expressed concern for his safety.
According to data from the Lanzhou local government, on Thursday there were 50 new confirmed asymptomatic local coronary cases and nine confirmed cases in the Qilihe district, where Tuo Shilei lives.
