Thousands of downtown Shanghai residents are being relocated to hotels after isolation measures after local authorities said hospital workers and patients in the city center tested positive for the CCP virus.
Surrounding areas have also been cordoned off, with residents facing rapidly deteriorating conditions as the government tries to stem the spread of the virus.
Authorities also conducted mass tests, with the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission reporting on January 22 on nine newly confirmed COVID-19 cases. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. It was found that six of the cases were from local shipping, while three were imported.
The cases of local dispatch were all from the Huangpu district in Shanghai – the same area where the COVID-19 positive hospital workers lived.
The Zhaotong residential community in the district was upgraded to a medium-risk area on January 21 after the positive cases were confirmed to the public. The area was then locked up, and groups of residents were transferred to hotels on January 21 and January 22.
According to Chinese media reports, the Bund police station said about 900 people were evacuated within five hours on the afternoon of January 21, and another 1,100 people were displaced on January 22. Visitors to Huangpu District’s hotels were included in the relocation efforts. .
A hotel owner in the Zhaotong community told The Epoch Times that they closed their business on January 21 and that all staff and customers have since been sent to other hotels for isolation.
‘Here’s a resident who tested positive in the cancer hospital. He lives in our Zhaotong community. (We) are all isolated in hotels, and here are 15,000 people tested. The whole community is empty. ”
This is the first time that Shanghai has accepted resettlement as an isolation measure since the onset of the epidemic. The Epoch Times got a video showing people being resettled.
The Shanghai Zhongfu Shifuhui Hotel, home to one of the travelers who tested positive for COVID-19, was also upgraded to a medium risk area and all surrounding parts of the hotel were locked. On January 21, two hotel employees and one guest tested positive for COVID-19.
A restaurant owner near the Zhongfu Shifuhui Hotel told The Epoch Times that many local roads were blocked and that the hotel and its surrounding areas were completely closed.
They had to close the restaurant yesterday, the owner said.
Local authorities have announced that they have put together a team of 3,100 people to assist with contact detection and investigations.
Mass testing
After Shanghai’s first cases in two local hospitals were publicly announced on January 21, authorities demanded that all staff in the city’s medical institutions be tested for COVID-19.
Tests will soon be extended to all residents at risk. City health officials announced on January 22 that they had tested 15,918 people for the virus.
The Epoch Times got a video showing hospital workers and residents waiting in line to be tested while streets in Shanghai were cordoned off and residents told by health workers that they were moving and undergoing isolation.
The resident of Shanghai, Mr. Li, told The Epoch Times on January 21 that he was still concerned that the Chinese communist regime was still not telling the truth about the epidemic.
“It [the government] said more than 10,000 people were tested, and how many results did not come out? There may be positive aspects among the unannounced, ‘he said.
Panic among medical students
After confirmed cases in the hospitals – the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and the Renji Hospital, which is affiliated with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine – panic spread among students at the related medical schools, and many were concerned that the schools were closed would be they would be forced to stay on campus. Students began encouraging each other to leave campus overnight before the end of the semester.
One student reported on social media that he left campus and came home at 10:30 pm on January 22nd.
“Students who were to do experiments on January 30 have all relocated for today,” he said in the post. ‘The campus is full of the sound of suitcases rubbing the ground. I feel that the epidemic is so close to me. I really hope that the epidemic in Shanghai will be effectively controlled as soon as possible. ”
Gu Xiaohua, Xiao Lushen and Luo Ya contributed to this report.