Chinese authorities are forcing children as young as three months old into quarantine centres away from their parents as part of their endless Zero COVID strategy.
Esther Zhao brought her daughter, two, to the hospital with a fever on March 26 and they both tested positive for COVID three days later.
Doctors attempted to take Zhao’s child away to a quarantine centre alone and threatened Zhao when she didn’t comply – saying that the girl would be kept in the COVID-ravaged hospital.
Zhao told reporters: ‘There have been no photos at all… I’m so anxious, I have no idea what situation my daughter is in.
‘The doctor said Shanghai rules is that children must be sent to designated points, adults to quarantine centres and you’re not allowed to accompany the children.’
She said that pictures of crying children had been circulating on the Chinese social media site Weibo. In one video, a groaning toddler crawls out of a room with four child-sized beds pushed against the wall.
Since Shanghai’s latest outbreak began about a month ago, authorities have locked down its 26 million people.
While the number of cases in Shanghai is small by global standards, Chinese authorities have vowed to stick with ‘dynamic clearance’, aiming to test for, traces and centrally quarantine all positive cases.