On Monday, April 4, Shanghai health officials defended their controversial policy of separating parents from babies and young children who tested positive for COVID-19. The move comes as frustration with the Chinese city's tough virus controls mounts.
France24 reported that around 25 million people in China's largest city and financial center remain locked down as authorities try to put out the country's most severe coronavirus outbreak since the end of the first COVID-19 pandemic wave in the early part of 2020.
Under China's strict virus controls, anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 must be isolated from non-infected people. That is the case even for asymptomatic people or only have a mild infection.
Parents and guardians voice their anger on social media
That also includes children who are found to be positive but whose family members are not. Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, issued a statement about the policy, saying, "If the child is younger than seven years old, those children will receive treatment in a public health center."
Wu added that they are mainly isolating them from older children or teenagers in centralized (quarantine) places. Parents and guardians voiced their anger on social media at the policy, which has spread outrage and anxiety across the sprawling city of Shanghai.
One unnamed commenter asked, "Parents need to meet 'conditions' to accompany their children?" on the social media platform Weibo. The person said that is absurd, claiming that parents being with their children should be their most fundamental right.
Concerns about the policy grew in recent days after unverified videos of babies and young children in state-run wards went viral. According to a report by CNBC, Wu maintained the policy is necessary to halt the spread of the coronavirus, saying that it was integral to virus prevention and control work. Wu added that children and parents who test positive for COVID-19 would be able to stay together as a family while they get treatment.
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New virus cases rising in Shanghai as lockdown extended
Frustration is mounting among the citizens in Shanghai, which has become the epicenter of China's COVID-19 outbreak. The city recorded 9,000 new virus cases on Monday, putting more pressure on officials to stop its spread.
Chinese authorities had initially promised not to lock down the whole city of Shanghai, targeting virus clusters with localized lockdowns of specific districts or compounds instead. With case numbers growing in the past weeks, city officials admitted that their tactics in containing the COVID-19 outbreak failed.
Officials introduced a two-stage lockdown, which they said at the time would only last four days each. The confinement was set to be lifted in theory on Tuesday, April 5, but the Shanghai government announced on its official WeChat account that the lockdown would stay in place due to the high number of positive COVID-19 cases detected in the area. Reuters reported that the lockdown in Shanghai will now cover all of the city despite growing anger over quarantine rules.
