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Coronavirus in China: tolerance wanes for Chengdu’s track and test regime
- People in the Sichuan capital find the local authority’s stringent measures to contain the latest Covid-19 outbreak harder to endure
- Experts from West China College of Public Health publish an open letter urgently calling for protection of privacy and minimal disruption to daily lives
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Kristen Ng, a musician and promoter, went to see the new James Bond movie at a cinema two weeks ago with her girlfriend in Chengdu, the southwestern Chinese city where they live.
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Three days later, they were in a hotel for 14 days of quarantine, after contact tracers found a confirmed Covid-19 case at the screening, Ng said. Other film-goers and cinema workers also had to quarantine.
The restrictions extended to people who were in contact with Ng and her girlfriend, who is a teacher, including 30 other teachers and 90 pupils, each with one of their parents, according to Ng.
Ng, her partner, and their friends have been living through China’s zero-tolerance policy towards Covid-19 for almost two years now. But they are finding the stringent measures to contain the latest outbreak – more than 1,100 cases in 20 provinces around the country since October – harder to endure.
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“It is a bit mad here at the moment. The effects are being felt much more widely this time. Lots of Covid-19 tests all around. Is this happening in other cities as well right now?” Ng said.
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