Makeshift Hospitals in China’s Guixi City Are Like ‘Concentration Camps’: Patient

Inside a makeshift hospital in Guixi City, Jiangxi Province. Courtesy of interviewee

The beds are close to each other with no partition to separate them. A number is written on the bed rail instead of the name of the patient.

Men and women, young and old, live together in a crammed space. Some patients don’t have a bed; they lie on the floor.

Lights remain on even at night. A woman is seen walking back and forth, holding a baby, trying to help it to get to sleep.

Garbage is scattered on the ground.

There are four toilets, also used as showers, for over 100 people.

These are some scenarios in two of the makeshift hospitals of Guixi, a city in China’s southeastern Jiangxi Province, as revealed in an online video obtained by the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times.

‘Concentration Camps’

Mr. Deng (pseudonym) is a resident of Guixi who is isolated in an industrial park in Guixi with his son who tested positive for the Covid-19 virus on Aug. 21 but showed no symptoms.

An elderly patient in a makeshift hospital in Guixi City, Jiangxi Province. Courtesy of the  interviewee

They first spent three days in a makeshift hospital in Yingtan, a city in Jiangxi Province.

“I felt so pained when I saw what it was like in a makeshift hospital,” Deng told the publication, “The place is like a concentration camp.”

He said that the authorities fooled him into isolation by telling him that makeshift hospitals are only for people with a poor immune system, like the elderly and children.

The Yingtan makeshift hospital has a capacity of about 800 people, but the authorities have isolated at least 1,000 people there, according to Deng.

“Many people have to lie on the floor, including children,” Deng said.

He felt that he had made the right decision to come with his son, even though he had tested negative for the COVID-19 virus at the time of isolation.

“My son is only two years old, but the authorities tried to put him in isolation in a makeshift hospital alone,” Deng told The Epoch Times on Aug. 29, “they wouldn’t let him stay in home isolation.”

In April, China’s megacity, Shanghai, isolated hundreds of children under the age of six after they tested positive for COVID-19, separating them from their parents.

After three days, Deng and his son were transferred to a makeshift hospital in Guixi, which was worse than the one they left in Yingtan.

He said the Guixi makeshift hospital was originally a storehouse, and is now divided into three layers, each with a capacity of 270 beds.

Inside a makeshift hospital in Guixi City, Jiangxi Province. The Chinese characters indicate that there are more beds in the direction of the black arrow. Courtesy of interviewee

“There are no partitions, and the space between the beds is less than three feet,” Deng said.

People are exposed to a high risk of cross-infection in such a close environment.

“This is a den of COVID-19 virus, and the air smells of the virus,” Deng said.

Lacking Medical Treatment

Then, Deng tested positive on Aug. 27. His son had a fever of 100° F and had to rely on his own immunity to survive, as there is a lack of medicine to treat COVID-19 patients in the hospital. Deng was given some antipyretics only after his temperature was over 102° F.

Xiao Ya (pseudonym), a high school student from Guixi, is isolated in a makeshift hospital in Guixi’s economic development zone.

“Many people cough badly, and some people have heart pain from coughing and ask medical staff for help. But the medical staff tell them, ‘There is nothing I can do here; there is no medicine,’” Xiao Ya told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Aug. 29.

“We all feel desperate, but we don’t know where we can find help,” Xiao Ya said, “everyone feels that there is no hope at all.”

Deng told the publication that many of the medical staff in Guixi are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and those who work in the makeshift hospitals are mostly medical student volunteers.

“People cough at night. If elderly people have a fever of 100° F, the medical staff don’t care at all. When the fever is above 102° F, they give the elderly patients some antipyretics,” Deng said.

He added that a little girl who had acute asthma and fever died due to a lack of medicine and proper medical treatment.

Garbage in a makeshift hospital in Guixi City, Jiangxi Province. Courtesy of interviewee

“I only hope these elderly people and children can move to a safer place, which is less crowded. This is my only hope,” Deng sighed.

Authorities Cover Up True Infection Data

Deng estimated that there are at least 50,000 to 60,000 people isolated in makeshift hospitals in Guixi, half of whom have tested positive for COVID-19.

He said that there are eight makeshift hospitals in the industrial park, each with a capacity of 700 to 800 patients. There are more such hospitals in other areas of the city.

“About 20,000 patients have been sent to makeshift hospitals in Nanchang City, and patients have been sent to Wannian County as well.” Deng blasted the authorities for covering up the true situation of the outbreak in the city.

The Epoch Times reached out to Guixi City’s pandemic control center on Aug. 31, but none of the calls were answered.

The top provincial health body of Jiangxi Province announced on Sept. 1 that from January 2020 to Aug. 31, 2022, the province has reported a total of 1,430 local confirmed cases.

Gu Xiaohua and Zhao Fenghua contributed to the article.