Covid-19: in Shanghai, the specter of a new confinement causes anxiety and panic

Residents of Shanghai waiting before being tested for Covid-19, June 19, 2022. REUTERS - ALY SONG

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The city of Shanghai, confined for two months last spring to protect itself against Covid-19, still seems traumatized by this episode.

Two videos have surfaced on the internet showing customers escaping shopping malls after contact cases were discovered.

In China, two and a half years after the start of the pandemic, the Covid-19 is still acting up.

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In a video published on Saturday August 13, dozens of customers try to extricate themselves from an Ikea store in Shanghai.

In front of them, a handful of policemen are trying somehow to block them.

But nothing to do, the desire for freedom is the strongest.

A few moments earlier, the Swedish brand announced that a contact case had been found in the store, synonymous with future confinement in

.

上海 徐汇宜家 要 禁止 出入 配合 流行 病学 调查 ， 吓 得 顾客 赶快 逃亡。 病毒 病毒 被 之前 不 要 在 中国 逛 商场 ，。。。。。。。。。。。。。。 pic.twitter.com/dawbpbln7v

— 方舟子 (@fangshimin) August 14, 2022

A six-year-old child is at the origin of the focus of contamination.

The authorities have already identified 400 contact cases.

80,000 people have been ordered to perform a PCR test.

For its part, the Ikea store closed its doors, and customers present that day must isolate themselves for 48 hours before following a five-day observation period.

The day before, another sequence with a similar scenario spread on Chinese social networks.

There too, frightened customers force barriers placed in front of a shopping center, suspected of having been visited by an infected person.

These two videos were both shot in Shanghai, the economic capital still traumatized by a two-month confinement in the spring.

A confinement which had provoked the

of 25 million inhabitants.

► To read also: China: new restrictions under study, Shanghai tests against Covid-19

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