The brutal method used by the Chinese regime to forcibly transfer elderly people with coronavirus to quarantine centers

A 92-year-old woman was surprised at 2 a.m. on Tuesday in China when men broke into her apartment to take her and her 74-year-old son because, apparently, both had tested positive for a COVID-19 test five days earlier.

When the lady refused to leave her home, the men pushed her out of her bed and dragged her to the ground. For fear of what might happen, her son helped her get dressed and they agreed to leave with the visitors to a quarantine center.

The story of what happened, narrated in a series of posts by the woman's granddaughter, Zhi Ye, a former journalist born and raised in Shanghai, shocked China and unleashed fury on social media.

In the midst of the protests, the local government confirmed the transfer of the two elders to a quarantine center. The statement released said that police and neighborhood committee workers had asked a locksmith to open the outside door of the apartment because they feared that “an accident” inside. The text also assured that the two elders had accepted the transfer after communicating with the police officers and “voluntarily went down” to get into the car.

Zhi's grandmother is one of the many senior citizens of Shanghai who have been transferred to government quarantine in recent days, as authorities step up efforts to eliminate all positive cases from communities in an attempt to end the spread of COVID outside designated locations.

Videos of people resisting being forcibly transferred are circulating on social networks. Meanwhile, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan, the highest-ranking official in charge of the country's COVID response, pledged Monday to send anyone who tests positive and their close contacts to quarantine locations, “without exception, deduction and delay.”

Many fear that the elderly will not receive adequate care in makeshift isolation centers, some of which are in poor condition and equipment, doctors and nurses are in short supply.

“For seniors between the ages of 80 and 90, the risk of them becoming infected and dying in these quarantine centers is much greater than if they stay at home and self-isolate,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior global health researcher at the Council on Foreign Relations, according to CNN.

“Many of these elderly people suffer from chronic illnesses that require special care, which probably won't be provided in quarantine centers,” he added.

The Chinese regime has long bragged that the “zero COVID” policy is saving lives, especially of vulnerable groups such as the elderly. However, experts say that forcing the elderly to a centralized quarantine poses a threat to the health and well-being of the very people who must be protected.

The lockdown multiplies hunger and anger in Shanghai

The harsh restrictions in Shanghai to try - without success - to keep COVID infections low have led to an unimaginable situation for many of the inhabitants of the most important city of one of the world's powers: going hungry and not getting food in the 20th century.

The authorities themselves have acknowledged that food shortages have been a disaster caused largely by the lack of planning and coordination of the draconian measures implemented since the end of March.

Promises did not delay, but commodity deliveries have not reached all parts of the city. Although the confinement has gradually been lifted, allowing some exits in some sectors, millions of citizens are still banned from moving.

Steven Jiang, head of CNN's Beijing Office, recounted how difficult the situation has been for his father, who lives in an apartment complex full of pensioners like him in northeast Shanghai. “Most seniors haven't been able to get supplies through bulk purchases over the Internet, pretty much the only way to buy something in Shanghai right now,” he explained.

When he wanted to help him remotely, he confessed that he never imagined it would be so complicated. Finally, he got a delivery for the next day at exorbitant prices: nearly 400 yuan ($62) for just five kilos of vegetables and five dozen eggs.

Even with the relief of filling his father's pantry, Jiang confessed to “survivor's fault”, imagining the situation of countless citizens who don't access a digital shopping app and/or don't have the money to pay those hefty prices.

“Literal survival was not a concern for most of Shanghai's 25 million inhabitants before April,” Jiang claimed. Throughout most of the pandemic, the city had remained almost oblivious to major outbreaks of contagion.

But he also pointed out that Chinese propaganda, which points to Ómicron as a potentially lethal threat and insists on defending its Covid-zero policy, puts more energy into criticizing the opposition than on convincing older adults to get vaccinated, since the immunization rate is currently 62%, much lower than in countries developed.

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