02/10/2020 / By JD Heyes
Chinese officials are continuing to implement drastic measures in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan City, even turning school dorms into ‘isolation wards’ that, some say, resemble disease-ridden prison camps.
As reported by The Epoch Times on Sunday, the Communist government has ordered more than 80 cities to be quarantined, robbing citizens of their livelihood while slowing production that kept the world supplied with cheap goods.
The paper noted:
Five Wuhan university dorms were converted into quarantine centers for coronavirus patients as the city struggles to contain the disease.
Over the weekend, major cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Tianjin have joined a list of over 80 Chinese cities that have enacted isolation measures to prevent the virus from spreading.
Last week, Wuhan City Vice Mayor Hu Yabo told reporters at the daily virus update news conference that city and provincial governments were moving to convert student dormitories at four universities as well as the new campus of the Hubei Province Communist Party training school into hold camps for the infected.
In all, the colleges pledged to supply 5,400 patient beds to serve coronavirus victims who are only afflicted with “mild” symptoms.
Hu also noted that the city of 11 million is in desperate need of medical supplies to include some 41,400 protective suits, 56,800 N95 masks, and 19,200 goggles. But again, as many factories remain closed due to quarantines and sickness, even China now has its own logistics problem.
People claiming to be students at the affected universities began sharing photos to social media. In some of them, workers are seen pulling plastic tarps over students’ beds while throwing their belongings on the floor.
Some students at Hanjiang University complained in online social media platforms they were not told ahead of time they would lose their dorms and see them converted into massive quarantine wards.
“Why use our dorm? Why don’t you use the stadium instead?,” said one user. “Who can protect my belongings?,” another questioned. “How will you disinfect our dorm before the new semester starts?,” another added.
But it gets worse. Though media — and especially social media — is very tightly controlled in Communist China, there are bits of information getting through (and publicized) indicating a growing frustration with the authoritarian manner in which Beijing is handling things.
For instance, some social media users have shared videos of tense conflicts between Chinese security personnel and citizens, “as many Chinese in cities held under lockdown begin to feel frustrated that they cannot move around freely,” The Epoch Times reported.
One of the most strict areas of lockdown is Huanggang City, which is also located in Hubei Province. There, all public transportation is shutdown as is all travel by private vehicle. In addition, authorities mandated that only one person from each household is permitted out in public at a time in order to shop for basic goods (if they can even be found). And what’s more, that family designee is only permitted to leave the home once every two days.
In most other jurisdictions, authorities have closed down residential areas and villages but have left open an emergency corridor for people to come and go. But the passage is guarded by security personnel, and anyone who leaves or comes back to the area must fill out a form and have body temperatures scanned.
There’s more. As Natural News reported, according to a tweet from a Chinese advocacy group called Himalaya Global, any Chinese citizen who fails to report recent travel to and from Wuhan face anywhere from 10 years-to-life in prison and could even be subject to the death penalty — for “endangering public safety.”
How much worse this all gets for the Chinese people will depend on the government’s ability — or inability — to contain coronavirus.
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Tagged Under: authoritarian, Beijing, chaos, China, cities, Collapse, coronavirus, death, death penalty, dorm rooms, infection, outbreak, pandemic, quarantine, quarantine center, spread, travel restrictions, universities, virus
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