China has intensified COVID-19 surveillance in Beijing amid a recent spike in cases while a video of what is reported to be a seriously ill teenager being ignored by medical staff at a COVID quarantine centre has caused public outrage at China’s draconian pandemic response.
Beijing, a city of 21 million people, reported 18 new, locally-transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total number for the past 10 days to 197 – four times more than the 49 infections in the previous 10-day period. The numbers may be minuscule compared with other countries, but China’s zero-COVID policy demands strict measures.
Beijing’s health authority said risky individuals and locations would be screened and residential compounds with suspected cases have been put under three-day lockdowns, with extensions possible if new infections emerge. Such measures are necessary to “ensure that no one is overlooked”, health authorities said. However, a video shared on social media this week of Chinese health officials apparently overlooking a critically ill teenager at a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Henan province has received hundreds of thousands of comments and angry calls for a full investigation.