Girl's Death Increases Anger at 'Zero COVID' Policy

Infant died after becoming ill in quarantine in central China city
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 17, 2022 4:10 AM CST
Baby's Death Sparks Anger at China's Zero 'COVID' Policy
Barriers form a security checkpoint in the Haizhu district of Guangzhou, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022.   (AP Photo)

Chinese authorities faced more public anger Thursday after a second child's death was blamed on overzealous anti-virus enforcement, adding to frustration at controls that have confined millions of people to their homes and sparked fights with health workers. The 4-month-old girl died after suffering vomiting and diarrhea while in quarantine at a hotel in the central city of Zhengzhou, according to news reports and social media posts, per the AP. They said it took her father 11 hours to get help after emergency services balked at dealing with them and she finally was sent to a hospital 60 miles away. The death came after the ruling Communist Party promised this month that people in quarantine wouldn't be blocked from getting emergency help following an outcry over a 3-year-old boy's death from carbon monoxide in the northwest.

His father blamed health workers in the city of Lanzhou, who he said tried to stop him from taking his son to a hospital. Internet users expressed anger at the Communist Party’s "zero-COVID” strategy and demanded that officials in Zhengzhou be punished for failing to help the public. "Zero-COVID" has kept China's infection numbers low but shuts down neighborhoods, schools, and businesses for weeks at a time. Residents of some areas complain they are left without food and medicine. A spike in infections over the past two weeks has led officials in areas across China to confine families to their cramped apartments or order people into quarantine if a single case is found in their workplace or neighborhood.

On Thursday, the government reported 23,276 new cases in areas throughout the country; 20,888 of them with no symptoms. That included a total of 9,680 in this week's biggest hot spot, the southern business center of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong. Videos on social media this week showed angry Guangzhou residents clashing with police knocking over barriers set up by white-garbed health workers. The 1.8 million residents of the city's Haizhu district were confined to their homes last week but some restrictions were lifted Monday. The area is home to many itinerant laborers, who complained that they don't get paid if they don't get to work and that food prices soared after COVID control measures were imposed, the BBC reports. (Last week, the government said some measures would be slightly eased.)

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