Shanghai authorities on Monday defended the controversial measure to separate children with covid-19 from their parents, an initiative that seeks to curb contagion in the confined metropolis of 25 million inhabitants.
The Chinese economic capital is currently the epicenter of the worst coronavirus outbreak in China since the beginning of 2020, due to the omicron variant.
In China, anyone who tests positive, even if they are asymptomatic or have a mild infection, have to be isolated from uninfected people. Shanghai authorities confirmed on Monday that the measure also applies to minors, even if they are babies.
This device has caused anxiety and stupor among the families of the metropolis.
“If the child is less than seven years old, these children will be treated at a public health center,” said Wu Qianyu, a municipal health services official.
“For older children or adolescents … we are mainly isolating them in centralized (quarantine) places,” he added.
The official explained that “if one of the parents is infected, he will be able to accompany the child and take care of him” in a special place “where they will be treated.”
In social networks, several families have shown their outrage at this measure.
“Do parents now have to ‘meet the conditions’ (be infected) to accompany their children? It’s absurd! It’s an elementary right,” said a user on the Weibo social network.
Several unverified videos are circulating these days showing young children and unaccompanied babies in public health centers.
Meanwhile, discontent is growing in Shanghai over the authorities’ inability to curb the growing number of infections.
The Ministry of Health announced on Monday more than 9,000 new cases in the city, 95% of them asymptomatic.
After several weeks of specific closures of residential compounds, Shanghai in recent days decreed strict confinements of the eastern, and then western, part of the city.
This confinement was supposed to end on Tuesday, but it will be prolonged due to the incessant increase in cases.
“We are going to continue testing, continuing the examination (of positive cases) and the transfer of people” infected to quarantine centers, local health authorities reported Monday night.
“The city will continue to apply the lockdown” until the new measures are announced, they added.
Faced with these restrictions, many inhabitants of the metropolis complain of problems getting fresh food or accessing hospitals.
