Shanghai authorities erected high fences outside the homes of residents who tested positive for COVID-19 this week, prompting an outcry on social media that people are being treated like animals amid the city’s tough lockdowns.
Images and videos of workers in hazmat suits fencing off buildings with 6-foot-tall green metal bars made the rounds on Chinese social media site Weibo, where users also complained that the buildings were fire hazards.
“This is so disrespectful to the rights of people inside to use metal barriers to enclose them like pets,” one person said.
Many of the metropolis’ 25 million residents have been shut down as China doubles down on its ‘zero-COVID’ policy. Nearly 40 people died from the virus in Shanghai on Saturday, the city’s highest number since its lockdown amid the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
“Isn’t that a fire hazard?” asked another Weibo user while pointing out the imposing green fences.
Green fences seal entrances to shops and residential units along a street. Jacqueline Wong/REUTERS
Images and videos of workers in hazmat suits fencing off buildings made the rounds on Weibo.Aly Song/REUTERS
Workers wear hazmat suits as they walk along the fence of a barricaded community. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
In some videos, residents can be seen yelling at the workers erecting the fence, and in one case they were able to successfully block the construction.
Reuters reported seeing the fences on streets in Shanghai on Sunday, and said the barriers would be put up in the city’s “sealed areas” — a designation for buildings where one or more people have tested positive and where neighbors are prevented from leaving their front door. Those who test positive are sent to quarantine centers.
The fences come as residents seem increasingly angry at the government for its strict quarantine rules and, despite censorship, are encouraged to voice their dissatisfaction.
A man speaks to his daughter through a fence in a residential area currently under Covid-19 quarantine Alex Plavevski/EPA
A man stands behind the fence at a quarantined compound Alex Plavevski/EPA
Barriers will be set up where one or more people have tested positive. Alex Plavevski/EPA
A 6-minute video titled “The Voice of April” – which showed a panorama of the city’s empty street and included voices from locals complaining about food and medicine shortages – was shared by many netizens before it was censored.
With post wires