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Shocking photos emerging from China apparently show the conditions for people living under stringent lockdown in Covid-19 quarantine camps across the country.
The images show basic metal cabins with the bare minimum of facilities which are being used to enforce China’s "Zero Covid" strategy.
With the Winter Olympics just around the corner, China’s government is determined to keep a lid on any potential outbreaks, Mirror Online reports.
Footage on Chinese social media shows people believed to be carrying Covid-19 living in the cramped boxes with only a wooden bed and a toilet.
Under China’s rules, the isolation periods can last up to two weeks.
In an unverified video clip circulating on Chinese social media platform Weibo, people in hazmat suits can be seen walking along the lines of cabins handing out food to those held there.
Another video appears to show a line of buses filled with people ready to be shipped to one of the camps.
A number of people claimed that they had been left waiting on the buses for several hours.
Thousands are being detained in the camps – with pregnant women, young children and the elderly among the inmates.
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Some Chinese citizens, posting on Weibo, have citified the authorities for leaving them in the cold, uncomfortable cabins.
”There is nothing here, just basic necessities,” one wrote. “Nobody has come to check up on us, what kind of quarantine is this? They did a big transfer of us, more than a thousand people, in the night and many of us are elderly people and children.
"They didn't make any proper arrangements and so they just carelessly placed us [here],"
The city of Xi’an has reported 1,600 new cases since December 9 and is under strict lockdown. Once viral clip emerging from the city showed a man being clubbed by police after he left his home to buy some steamed buns.
Many others have been left short of basic foodstuffs, with one student claiming that she been living on nothing but instant noodles for two weeks and only had five packs left.
China has stopped issuing and renewing passports for "non-urgent purposes" to its own citizens as part of a general crackdown on international travel.
Controls have even been imposed on moving between China's cities with mandatory periods of self-isolation for those permitted to travel – in some cases even within individual cities.
All schools are closed and public transport is suspended, with very few cars on the roads.
While the rules seem harsh they do on the face of it appear to be effective.
Since the end of 2019, China has reported just over 4,600 deaths.
That compares to some 830,000 in the US over the same period while here in the UK just over 150,000 Covid-related deaths have been recorded.
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- Olympics
- China
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