In Shanghai, stricter COVID rules separate children from parents

“I looked for any sight of my daughter in the video, but couldn’t find her,” said the mother, who asked to be identified only by her surname Zhu.

Ms Zhu said she was separated from her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter on Tuesday after testing positive for Covid in Shanghai, which is becoming China’s biggest coronavirus outbreak in more than two years.

Later in the day, Ms. Zhu said she had virtually no news or photos of her daughter left, adding that she had been sent to a separate facility for COVID-infected children and infants.

After watching the video, she said she could not sleep, overcome by her daughter’s anxiety.

Social-media users who uploaded the widely circulated footage of the children described it as coming from a facility designated for COVID-infected children in Shanghai’s southwestern Jinshan district.

The hospital, which the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center asked to show, said in a statement on Saturday that some photos and videos are circulating online of captured scenes of the hospital’s pediatric ward in the middle of a transfer to another building, Which is driven by the increase in infected. In recent days children suggested that the situation was temporary.

The hospital also said in the statement that the children were being treated and cared for and wanted to improve communication with parents.

A hospital representative said the hospital declined to comment beyond the statement.

The Shanghai woman, who originally posted the footage online, who identified herself as the mother of a 6-year-old boy at the Jinshan facility, later removed the video from her account. Earlier posts on his account had described the video as being sent to him by a volunteer at the hospital. He did not respond to requests for comment made through his social-media accounts. His name could not be determined.

On Saturday, Zeng Kun, deputy chief of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, told a news conference that some children have been temporarily separated from parents who have been infected or barred from returning home because of the lockdown. Mr Zeng called it a “serious problem” and urged officials to help resolve the situation expeditiously.

Shanghai, a megacity of more than 25 million people, has been locked in a two-stage quarantine that began last week. On Sunday, the city added a daily record of more than 8,200 new locally transmitted infections for the previous day, bringing the total number of cases since March 1 to more than 50,000.

Public dismay at Shanghai’s crushing COVID containment aim is growing online as lockdowns in parts of the city near the one-month mark. Some residents have been denied basic medical care as the city’s health system stretches to the limit.

Although the city has not yet officially reported any COVID deaths, at least two elderly care facilities in Shanghai have seen a surge in COVID cases in recent weeks, leading to several deaths, The Wall The Street Journal has reported.

A mother in Shanghai, who only wanted to be identified by her surname Zhang, said in an interview that her 2-year-old boy was taken away from her on Monday after the child and both parents tested positive for Covid-19. . Since her son was sent to the facility in Jinshan, Ms Zhang, who is being treated at another hospital, said she had only received one call asking Jinshan’s doctors about his medical history.

A hospital representative declined to comment on individual cases, citing a hospital statement.

Ms Zhang said she next saw her 2-year-old when the video went viral on China’s Internet.

“It was only two seconds but I recognized her immediately,” said Ms. Zhang.

She said she is in touch with other mothers whose children are in the same facility.

“It’s not just about us. It was so hard to see the babies covered under blankets in the footage. I can’t hear their cries,” said Ms. Zhang, a native of the inland province of Anhui.

For their part, Ms Zhu said she and her daughter, who live in the western part of Shanghai, who entered lockdown on Friday, tested positive for COVID on March 26 and were treated at Shanghai Tongren Hospital the same day. accepted for.

In the early hours of March 29, Ms. Zhu said, a doctor there sent her a message asking if she was ready to send her daughter to a separate facility for infected children in Jinshan district.

“I rejected them immediately,” Ms. Zhu said in a phone interview.

Hours later, Ms Zhu said, Tongren Hospital staff called to say they would move her to a separate quarantine center for adults. After speaking to her husband, Ms. Zhu said she reluctantly agreed to move her daughter to the Jinshan facility.

Over the next four days, she said, Jinshan’s hospital staff did not provide any updates about her daughter, although they answered one out of every four or five questions sent to her.

“I can’t take it anymore. I beg you, please give my daughter back to me.” To comply with health care regulations.

A hospital representative declined to comment on individual cases, citing a statement made by the hospital. Attempts to reach the doctor were unsuccessful.

Ms Zhu said she was concerned about the psychological impact on her daughter, who had never been separated from her family for so long.

Just before noon on Saturday, she said she received a video from the hospital: It was her daughter, her first glimpse in four days. In the video, a doctor standing near the daughter’s bed asked her to smile. A nurse asked her daughter if she had treated her well and said that if so, she should nod.

“It hurts my heart to see this. My daughter’s facial expressions were so harsh. She looked so confused and unnatural,” said Ms. Zhu, who still doesn’t know when she’ll get the chance to see her daughter again. will get.

As for Ms. Zhang, whose husband is being treated at a different hospital in Shanghai, her only wish is that the family is reunited soon.

“The virus is not scary at this point,” said Ms Zhang, who is suffering only mild symptoms. “Separation from my loved ones scares me more than anything.”