Shanghai residents concerned about human cost of China's Covid quarantines

Orderlies posted pleas for assistance on social media, claiming they were overwhelmed. Several people died, according to relatives, according to Reuters.

The metropolis of Shanghai, where many foreign businesses are located, entered a two-part lockdown this week as municipal authorities sought to control an outbreak in China’s worst Covid wave in two years. Hector Retamal | Afp | Getty Images

Lu, 99, had been a long-term resident at Shanghai's Donghai Elderly Care hospital, where her loved ones could rest assured that she was receiving round-the-clock care at the city's largest such facility.

That was before Covid-19 hit China's largest city last month, causing the country's worst outbreak since the virus first appeared in Wuhan in late 2019, infecting multiple patients, doctors, and care workers at the 1,800-bed facility.

Orderlies posted pleas for assistance on social media, claiming they were overwhelmed. Several people died, according to relatives, according to Reuters.

Lu had coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, according to her relatives, who asked that she only be identified by her surname. Her family was informed on March 25 that she had contracted Covid and was being transferred to an isolation facility despite the fact that she had no symptoms.

Her underlying medical conditions were listed as the cause of death when she died there seven days later, according to her granddaughter.

Among the questions she has about Lu's final days is why, under China's quarantine rules, elderly patients had to be quarantined separately, away from the care workers most familiar with their conditions.

Her dissatisfaction with China's zero-tolerance Covid policy is shared by many others. Everyone who tests positive must be quarantined in specialized isolation facilities, whether or not they exhibit symptoms.