By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese authorities faced more public anger Thursday after a second child’s death was blamed on overzealous anti-virus enforcement, adding to frustration at controls which might be confining tens of millions of individuals to their homes and sparked fights with medical examiners.
The 4-month-old girl died after suffering vomiting and diarrhea while in quarantine at a hotel within the central city of Zhengzhou, in keeping with news reports and social media posts. They said it took her father 11 hours to get help after emergency services balked at coping with them and he or she finally was sent to a hospital 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.
The death got here after the ruling Communist Party promised this month that individuals in quarantine would not be blocked from getting emergency help following an outcry over a 3-year-old boy’s death from carbon monoxide within the northwest. His father blamed medical examiners in town of Lanzhou, who he said tried to stop him from taking his son to a hospital.
Web users expressed anger on the ruling Communist Party’s “zero-COVID” strategy and demanded that officials in Zhengzhou be punished for failing to assist the general public.
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“Once more, someone died due to excessive epidemic prevention measures,” one user wrote on the favored Sina Weibo platform. “They put their official post above every part else.”
The ruling party promised last week to ease quarantine and other restrictions under its “zero-COVID” strategy, which goals to isolate every infected person. But Chinese leaders try to dispel hopes the measures might end as other governments ease controls and check out to live with the virus.
“Zero-COVID” has kept China’s infection numbers lower than those of the US and other major countries but shuts down neighborhoods, schools and businesses for weeks at a time. Residents of some areas complain they’re left without food and medicine.
A spike in infections over the past two weeks has led officials in areas across China to restrict families to their cramped apartments or order people into quarantine if a single case is present in their workplace or neighborhood.
On Thursday, the federal government reported 23,276 recent cases in areas throughout the country; 20,888 of them with no symptoms.
That included a complete of 9,680 on this week’s biggest hot spot, the southern business center of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong.
Videos on social media this week that said they were shot Guangzhou showed offended residents knocking over barriers arrange by white-garbed medical examiners. The 1.8 million residents of town’s Haizhu district were confined to their homes last week but some restrictions were lifted Monday.
A complete of 1,659 cases were reported in Henan province, one other hot spot where Zhengzhou is positioned.
Access to a Zhengzhou industrial zone that’s home to the world’s biggest iPhone factory was suspended this month following outbreaks. Apple Inc. said deliveries of its recent iPhone 14 model can be delayed.
Last month, 1000’s of employees walked away from the factory operated by Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group after complaints that coworkers who fell ailing received no treatment.
News reports say the ruling party has ordered “grassroots cadres” to take the place of missing employees and Foxconn is offering bonuses to others who stay. Foxconn has not responded to requests for confirmation or details.
The 4-month-old girl in Zhengzhou and her father were sent into quarantine Saturday, in keeping with news reports and social media.
An account on social media that said it was written by the daddy, identified as Li Baoliang, said he began calling the emergency hotline at noon on Monday after she suffered vomiting and diarrhea. It said the hotline responded the girl wasn’t sick enough to want emergency care. The account said medical examiners on the quarantine site called an ambulance however the crew refused to cope with them since the father tested positive for the virus.
The girl finally arrived at a hospital at 11 p.m. but died despite efforts to revive her, the account said.
The account attributed to the daddy complained the emergency hotline acted improperly, nearby hospitals weren’t able to help and the hospital where they ended up failed to supply “timely treatment” and gave him “seriously false” information.
“Epidemic prevention and control people, do you not have a heart?” said one other posting on Sina Weibo.
The Zhengzhou city government said the incident was under investigation, in keeping with news reports.
A report on the social media account of reports outlet China News Weekly was reposted 11,000 times and received 45,000 “likes,” in keeping with Sina Weibo.
Within the capital, Beijing, access to elite Peking University was suspended Wednesday. Individuals who visited a vegetable market in town’s southeast where a case was found were ordered into quarantine in a hotel at their very own expense. Some shopping malls and office buildings have been closed.
AP news assistant Caroline Chen contributed.
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