The COVID-19 outbreak continues to worsen in China’s northeastern port city Dalian, especially in its Zhuanghe city, which is the most severely affected area. The authorities ordered all the residents in the county city of Dalian to stay at home for 14 days, and the doors of the households were sealed to ensure that no one leaves their homes. The university district in the city has been shut down for almost two weeks.
According to the Chinese communist regime’s National Health Commission, from Nov. 4 to Nov. 12, 229 COVID-19 cases were found in Dalian within 9 days.
On Nov. 13, 60 new local confirmed cases were added, mainly in Zhuanghe University City. On Nov. 14, Zhao Lian, deputy director of the Dalian Municipal Health Commission, admitted in the official epidemic notice that the virus that caused this round of outbreak in Dalian has a high viral load and spreads rapidly, with more asymptomatic infections in the early stages, and causing infection in clusters.
Xiaosi township in Zhuanghe city, Dalian, was upgraded to a high-risk area, and 24 areas in three counties (districts) in Dalian have been classified as medium-risk areas.
Among the newly confirmed cases in the past two days, a total of 45 cases are in Zhuanghe University City, most of which were college students. It has two universities: the School of Art and Information Engineering of Dalian Polytechnic University and Haihua College of Liaoning Normal University, with nearly 20,000 people.
Peng Kang, a vendor in the cafeteria of the East Campus of Haihua College told the Chinese-language Epoch Times that since the first case in Zhuanghe was diagnosed on Nov. 4, the entire university city was shut down. “At 7 p.m. on the same day, the school notified us that the entire campus was on lockdown. All the vendors (more than 100 people) on campus were not allowed to leave (they have to be in quarantine in the student dorms), as well as students. Volunteers are on duty downstairs to make sure no one leaves,” he said
As COVID-19 continues to spread in Dalian, Zhuanghe city, implemented at-home quarantines for all residents on Nov.12.
The Dalian City Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters Community Management and Control Group announced on Nov. 12 that if people go out without authorization during the home quarantine period, they will be punished. All the people in the same household and in the same building will be put under home quarantine control, and their quarantine time will be reset.
The notice ordered people to “stay at home” and cooperate with relevant departments to install monitoring equipment, electronic door sensors, and sticking seals on doors to ensure that they stay home.
“Now all roads, entrances, and exits are shut down, and all the checkpoints to enter Zhuanghe are closed. No one can come, and we cannot leave,” Chi Xiaoling (alias), a resident of Zhuanghe city, told the Chinese-language Epoch Times. “Now we are all quarantined at home, and some people who have been exposed to the infected have been dragged to the quarantine site for isolation,” she said.
“Our community has to be quarantined even though there is no outbreak here. We have to do nucleic acid tests every day. We have passed nine nucleic acid tests and there are no symptoms, but the government still strictly controls,” she added.
Netizens complain about the arbitrary measures. One post reads, “The city of Zhuanghe in Dalian, Liaoning, has been locked down since Nov. 12. There are 400,000 households in the city, about 800,000 people, and each household has been sealed off to be in quarantine for 14 days. If anyone tears off the seal from their door within the 14 days, they will be fined a quarantine fee. Why do all residents have to be in-home quarantined? [The government] said that these people had undergone seven nucleic acids tests and they are fine, and it’s to prevent the risk of them being in contact with the outside world that this measure is taken.”
Another post reads, “In Zhuanghe, Dalian, all 400,000 households have been sealed off and are not allowed to go out for 14 days. Every family really needs to stock up food for one or two months. This could happen to anyone at any time.”
Other residents in Dalian worry that the lockdown could be expanded to the entire city of Dalian and they have started to rush to supermarkets to buy food and supplies to stock up, emptying store shelves.
