As COVID-19 outbreaks continue to worsen in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, there are signs that the local situation is much worse than Chinese authorities have admitted.
Chen Xi (a pseudonym), a resident in Guangzhou’s Panyu district, described how panic had set in among locals in his area now, compared to days earlier when the local outbreak was not too much of a concern, in an interview with the Chinese-language Epoch Times on June 5. Guangzhou is a port city in southern China’s Guangdong Province.
Locals have cleaned vegetables and other staples off the shelves at local markets, Chen said, leaving him with few options when he went there. He added that all residents in his district were tested for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19, on June 4.
Chen said he was told not to leave his residential district until the result of his virus test was known. He speculated that the stay-at-home order was given because the number of infection cases was climbing substantially, contrary to what the Chinese authorities have reported.
Fueling his speculation was what a local doctor at the Panyu Central Hospital told him. Chen said that the doctor told him on May 30 that there could be more than 300 infection cases, but local health officials had not announced them.
As of June 5, health officials in Guangzhou—a city of about 15.3 million people—reported less than 100 cases of infection since May 21, considered the first day of the current wave in Guangzhou. On that day, officials identified a 75-year-old local woman with the surname Guo to test positive and determined that she was infected with the Indian variant of the CCP virus two days later on May 23.
Since then, Guangzhou health officials have attributed the majority of cases to be caused by the Indian variant. The Indian variant is also known as the “Delta” variant under a Greek naming system announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to Chen, the doctor also said that the virus was spreading very quickly, and there were many patients that did not show any symptoms of the virus such as fever. And it was these asymptomatic patients that were being excluded by the official infection statistics announced by Guangzhou health officials, the doctor said.
Chen said that Guangzhou was close to being in lockdown, since much of the city’s public transportation, roads, and highways had been sealed off, and some hospitals had suspended their outpatient services.
Guangzhou health officials have imposed tough measures to curb the local outbreaks, including having residents in the city’s 11 districts tested for the virus.
Beginning at noon on June 7, whenever residents in Guangzhou want to leave their area, they must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the last 48 hours.
One of the 11 districts, Nansha, went into lockdown from June 5, when district officials suspended local public transportation and closed down roads, highways, and ports.
A day earlier, on June 4, Guangzhou officials said plans were being put together to distribute basic necessities like meat, eggs, and milk using drones and self-driving vehicles to certain areas in the city.
Chen also questioned the Guangzhou officials’ decision to suspend COVID-19 vaccination for locals.
“I asked a doctor who told me that there was a shortage of vaccines. This was quite strange. Before eggs and money were being distributed out asking people to get vaccinated. Now, as the outbreak gets worse, it should become more urgent for people to get vaccinated,” Chen said.
The suspension began on May 31 and city officials said the move was to prevent crowds from gathering in order to reduce transmission, according to China’s state-run media. Before the halt came into effect, about 10.1 million people were vaccinated by May 31. Among these people, about 3.25 million completed the full vaccination regimen.
Chen added that crowds also gathered when people went to designated spots to get tested for the virus, but this didn’t seem to be a concern for local officials.
“A lot of people are talking about this. We don’t know what those officials are thinking. We cannot verify what they say,” Chen concluded.
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