Covid-19 in China: in Shanghai, a man sent to the morgue while he was still alive

2022-05-04T10:05:14.612Z

In Shanghai, while the city has been under extremely strict confinement for more than a month, with a rising death toll, especially in retirement homes, a man was sent to the…

Covid-19 in China: in Shanghai, a man sent to the morgue while he was still alive

Ambulance in the streets of Shanghai, April 30, 2022. © AFP - HECTOR RETAMAL

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

In Shanghai, as the city has been under extremely strict confinement for more than a month, with a rising death toll, especially in retirement homes, a man was sent to the morgue while he was alive.

It was the morgue employees in charge of removing the body who noticed this mistake, which is hard to imagine.

With our correspondent in Shanghai

Léo Cirah

The video is particularly shocking: the body, in a yellow body bag, is already loaded into a hearse when funeral directors have a doubt.

They take the person out of the vehicle, open the bag, and alert the retirement home.

The person they were about to take is still alive.

This is the video everyone's talking about today, showing how a Shanghai nursing home resident is taken away to the morgue in a body bag.

At around 38 sec in the video, the staff member backs away and says: "He's alive. He's alive, I saw it. Don't cover him anymore."

pic.twitter.com/Y3HzRRpxUl

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) May 2, 2022

The scene, filmed by several neighbors, obviously sparked outraged reactions on Chinese social networks.

Authorities said four officials, including the director of the nursing home, have been fired, and the doctor who signed the death certificate has had his license revoked.

Obsession with “zero-Covid”

But the inhabitants of Shanghai see in this event the symptom of the chaos which reigns in the city, which begins its sixth week of strict confinement.

The obsession with "zero-Covid" leads to grotesque situations.

Thousands of elderly people are sent to isolation centers with spartan conditions, others cannot receive the medical care they need.

And several retirement homes found themselves in deplorable conditions, because the medical staff was placed in isolation because of cases of Covid-19.

►Also read

: China: in Shanghai, the discontent of residents exhausted by the “zero Covid” strategy

Covid-19 in China: in Shanghai, a man sent to the morgue while he was still alive

Covid-19 in China: in Shanghai, a man sent to the morgue while he was still alive

Obsession with “zero-Covid”

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