Covid-19 in China: Woman and ailing father threatened with detention after clash with police while trying to visit hospital
- A viral video of the confrontation in which police stopped the pair going to a hospital has sparked public outrage
- The city on the North Korean border has been in lockdown for 2 months, but is now loosening controls following an intervention from the provincial governor
In the 10-minute video the woman tried to argue with police and the father was seen covering his abdomen constantly with his hands. The woman later said that her father had intestinal surgery in April and she wanted to take him to hospital for a check-up after she was given a permit to collect his medication.
During the argument the woman was pushed to the ground by a police officer and the father slapped the officer, who subsequently fell.
Local police said in a statement on Wednesday that the woman, 41, had been given 10 days of administrative detention for obstruction of duty and the father, 70, faces criminal detention for assaulting a police officer – although neither punishment has yet been implemented.
The statement caused an uproar online and many expressed their sympathy for the pair.
The woman said via a video message on Thursday that she would appeal against the punishment, adding that the pair had been allowed to go home and the medicine had later been delivered.
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The incident shone a spotlight on the plight of the city, which has been quietly enduring the stress of a prolonged lockdown while most media attention was focused on Shanghai.
The city of 2.3 million people, which is separated from North Korea by the Yalu river, has been in strict lockdown for almost two months after a series of Covid-19 outbreaks.
The city has recorded around 1,000 infections over the past two months or so with no source identified, although daily cases are now in single digits.
Train services have been suspended since March and the city’s airport was closed the following month. Parcel deliveries have been suspended for three months and most residents have been banned from leaving home since late April.
On Thursday night the authorities said restrictions would start to ease after the governor of Liaoning province, Li Lecheng, said the city should stop applying excessive controls and ensure residents’ medical needs can be kept.
Residents who have tested negative within the past 48 hours will now be able to travel within the city and taxi services have resumed. However, public transport remains suspended and residents are still banned from leaving the city.
Local officials have pointed to the outbreak in North Korea as a possible source of infection, suggesting the virus has been blown across the border and telling residents to close their windows when there are southerly winds.
Other residents have also reported trouble receiving medical treatment even in urgent cases.
A 25-year-old woman surnamed Wang told the Post her grandmother had to wait in agony for hours when she started suffering abdominal pain.
When she called an ambulance, she was told there was only one in operation and had to wait for hours before it arrived.
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Even then several hospitals turned her away before the family were able to pull strings to get her to see a doctor who diagnosed an inflamed gall bladder- and even then she had to take a Covid-19 test beforehand.
“She was extremely lucky because we have heard tales of hospitals turning patients away or families under lockdown being unable to visit dying relatives,” Wang said.
Other residents are suffering financially as a result of the lockdown. One man named Lin said he had only worked for one month this year and the bank would not allow him to defer his mortgage payments.
“I have no income and can’t afford to pay the mortgage or even put food on the table. My wife and I used to have money left over after paying the bills, but now the epidemic has completely ruined my household,” Lin said.
A 22-year-old university student, who identified herself only as Xing, said she had been stuck at home for the whole semester and could not receive study materials for a postgraduate entrance exam because postal services had been suspended.
She said her parents’ pet store has not made any money during the lockdown and the family has only received one food delivery from the government in the past two months.
Despite regular community tests – she estimates she has taken 47 so far – the city is still recording new cases.
“Dandong is managed in grids and each community has been sealed off with wire fences and people are like monkeys in a zoo. What I find most unacceptable is that we are very cooperative, but there are still new cases every day and the source of two outbreaks have not yet been identified,” Xing said.
