China is relocating entire neighbourhoods in parts of Shanghai amidst the country’s latest efforts to deal with Covid outbreaks.
As a part of its extreme efforts to achieve Covid Zero, Chinese authorities are shifting some communities 100 miles away to quarantine facilities.
The BBC reported that official notices from the Chinese Communist Party’s local branch informed residents in northern parts of Shanghai of the measures.
People living in the Pingwang and Zhejiang provinces were being moved for at least a week.
The notice said that young children, the elderly and disabled were excluded from the severe Covid measure.
However according to the notice, only those who tested negative would be moved, but it was not clear why.
Officials in China are under massive pressure to cut transmission and reduce case numbers.
The move is a part of China’s Covid Zero approach where the country tries to keep case rates as low as possible.
This includes extreme methods such as forcibly ordering people out of their homes and shifting entire communities.
In the past few weeks, authorities once again removed people out of their homes and evacuated another area of Shanghai.
At least 1,000 people were forced to leave the small town of Beicai for temporary accommodation.
This was all to allow officials to disinfect the area in the east of the city.
Once again, then, an official notice issued told residents to pack up their belongings and leave their front door and wardrobes open.
Images circulating on social media showed people queuing with suitcases at night, as they left their homes.
The notice was issued by the town’s Epidemic Prevention Office and ordered pets to be left behind as well.
It read: "You cannot bring your pets with you during this evacuation, but we will arrange for them to be taken care of."
Both the most recent mass evacuation and the previous one are signs of how far China is willing to go to try and tackle Covid in the city of Shanghai.
The city has been in a strict lockdown which is now in its fourth week and has recorded 400,000 cases in a cty of 25 million.
The official death toll is 17 for this week, nearly all of whom were elderly, unvaccinated residents with underlying health problems.
Videos have emerged online showing health workers clad in full PPE walking through the streets of Beicai spreading lime powder to try and kill the virus.
Local government officials in the area had previously been forced to deny reports that up to 8,000 people tested positive for Covid.
When it moved residents, the city has reportedly taken them to quarantine centres of hotels.
One 33-year-old woman, who was sent to a school that had been requisitioned, posted on social media: "I had enough, just arrived last night but I already want to go back home!!!"
