Crowds of people in Guangzhou, an industrial city in southern China, broke out of a mandatory lockdown and fought with police because they didn’t like the strict coronavirus rules.
A dramatic video shows some people flipped over a police car and broke down COVID control barriers. The authorities have sent squads to the area now.
It comes after the worst COVID outbreak in Guangzhou since the pandemic started.
China’s “zero COVID” policy is under a lot of pressure because of its alarming economic numbers.
The Haizhu District of the city had become tense because people were told to stay home.
A lot of poor traveling workers live in the area. They complained that they don’t get paid if they don’t show up for work, that there isn’t enough food, and that prices are rising.
They had been fighting with the white-clad COVID stoppage officers for a few nights. Then, midnight on Monday, people in Guangzhou took to the streets to show how angry they were.
Again, untrue rumors have been a factor. For example, there have been rumors that testing companies are making up PCR results to increase the number of infections and make more money artificially.
COVID continues to ravage northern China
In the country’s north, there is also a lot of talk about the coronavirus.
The province of Hebei said that mass testing would stop in Shijiazhuang. But this made people think they would be used as guinea pigs to see what would happen if the virus spread without being stopped.
People have talked about this on social media with the hashtag #ShijiazhuangCOVIDprevention.
People in the area are afraid, so many of them have stocked up on Chinese medicines. The city is almost out of supplies for the time being.
A viral rumor caused the mass escape of workers from the Foxconn complex in the central city of Zhengzhou two weeks ago. So naturally, this has hurt the supply of Apple iPhones worldwide.
China’s local governments struggle to keep a “zero-COVID” policy without destroying their economies. But the latest official numbers on factory output and retail sales show how hard the pandemic hit and how the government tried to help.
No province has had no cases reported in the last few days.
Western region is also on lockdown
Chongqing, a megacity in Western China has put Around 20 million people under “voluntary static management,” a type of lockdown. Even though there hasn’t been an official announcement, community leaders have told them to stay inside.
People have joked online that the Chongqing government didn’t want to announce a lockdown on the same day it made China’s zero-COVID rules less strict.
Because COVID amelioration is still so significant here. If they change the method of administration, panic and confusion might set in.
At the start of this week, Beijing’s Chaoyang district officials decided to close many testing booths on the street and move them into housing compounds. Because of this, the number of PCR stations dropped all at once. The problem is that many office buildings will only let you in if you show proof of work daily.
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So there were long lines at the open booths.
From the workers stuck in Tibet and didn’t want to leave Lhasa to the lockdown of the whole region of Xinjiang, things aren’t going well with zero-COVID.
Last week, the government made several changes to the rules that showed that more changes could come in the future. But even if the government thinks about this, there might be a better time.
