China Builds Cages Around Homes To Prevent Shanghai Residents From Leaving Even If They Don’t Have COVID

The Chinese government has prevented Shanghai residents from leaving even if they don’t have COVID, by building green cages around their homes.

In the world’s strictest lockdown, Chinese civilians have been detained in their own homes as authorities built barriers around their homes.

Shanghai residents awoke to find green walls constructed overnight by authorities to restrict people’s movement as the city suffers its worst coronavirus outbreak since the pandemic began.

Those who have walls around their homes, enclosing them in a sealed area, are unable to leave their homes, whether or not they have the virus.

Due to a surge in Covid cases, Shanghai’s 25 million residents have been confined for weeks, with 21,000 new cases reported on Sunday (April 24). That day, the virus killed 39 people in the city.

Social media has been flooded with images of officers in white hazmat suits scouring the city and enclosing specific areas with green fencing.

Shanghai’s people have already been pushed to their limits by the extremely severe lockdown, as babies and young children have been separated from their parents under existing restrictions.

People are also surprised by the latest move, which involves erecting two-metre-high green fences surrounding buildings where at least one person has tested positive for Covid to create ‘sealed’ areas.

It caught residents off guard, as they were unaware of the new rule until they awoke to find the barriers.

A foreign national told the BBC that a green fence had only appeared surrounding his apartment complex a few days ago.

He claims that the complex’s main gate was ‘chained up’ three weeks ago after one of his neighbors contracted the virus.

“There is a long corridor in our compound, and within the long corridor they put up another green fence three days ago.  No one told us the reason it was installed,” the man said to the BBC, requesting anonymity.

“No one can get out. I feel helpless. You don’t know when the lockdown is going to end.”

“If your area gets fenced off, what if a fire breaks out? I don’t think anyone in their right mind can seal people’s homes.”

Chris Pc, a director of documentaries in China, took to Twitter to explain what locals had been saying.

“We all have heard stories of residents and even entire buildings refusing to go outside for mass testing,” he wrote. “Some are fatigued, others fear that being together brings infection risks.”

“Some think sealed-off entrances like this are to separate these folks. The hope being that other residents of a community would not be punished for the lack of co-operation from a few. This might be wishful thinking.”

“It’s usually extremely crowded on sunny weekend afternoons. To see these fences up with little official explanation is confusing a lot of people.”

Shanghai’s strict laws and regulations are part of China’s zero-Covid policy, which aims to eradicate the virus completely.

At the start of the pandemic, the number of Covid infections in the country was relatively low, but as variants become more transmissible, the number of cases has risen.