Healthcare workers seen next to food delivered by the local government in Shanghai on Sunday. (AFP)
Shanghai residents frustrated by the harsh COVID-19 lockdown, can be heard screaming from their apartments in new videos going viral on social media. Several such videos have surfaced on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms, which show people squabbling with local authorities and warning of repercussions.
China's largest city has been under lockdown since April 5 to control the spread of the infection as part of the country's “zero COVID” policy. All the 26 million people of the city have been ordered to stay at home.
Well-known public health scientist, US-based Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, posted some of these videos from Shanghai where he says the residents of the apartments are speaking in “Shanghainese”, a local dialect. He said the people won't be able to hold out much longer, which could lead to a tragedy.
“Yao ming le” & “yao si” - both expressions meaning “life and death” but they also more literally means “asking for death”. Narrator eventually implies shit is gonna hit the fan soon if this continues,” Dr Feigl-Ding said in the Twitter thread.
“The video has been verified by @patrickmadrid's family. It has also been verified by my sources as commonplace. Also, Shanghainese is a local dialect (not really propaganda useful) - only 14 million out of 1.3 billion Chinese even speak. I only speak it because I was born there,” he said in another tweet.
The health expert said that China might be hitting a “breaking point” with Omicron's BA.2 variant, which is leading the surge in cases in Shanghai.
"Horrors beyond," said a Twitter user. "Straight out of a dystopian novel. This will give you chills," said another.
China's most populous city reported nearly 25,000 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections on Sunday. The locals voiced complaints over food and basic supplies and concern spread that more cities may soon be in the same situation.
Shanghai's case numbers are small compared to some cities globally, but it is battling China's worst COVID outbreak since the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in 2019.
Streets of Shanghai are deserted with only healthcare workers, volunteers, delivery personnel or those with special permission allowed to go out.