BEIJING (AP) – Baby sleeps up to thousands of strangers in rows of cribs in a high-ceilinged exhibition center. The lights are on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.
Babey and her husband were housed at the huge National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home after a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, and the nanny was also quarantined.
Residents are not showing “no obvious symptoms,” said Babey, who asked to be identified only by her own name, she told the Associated Press in a videophone interview.
“There are people who cough,” she said. “But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or omicron.”
The 50,000-bed convention center is one of more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in China’s most populous city for those like Baby, who test positive but have little or no symptoms. This is part of official efforts to curb the largest coronavirus epidemic in China since the beginning of the 2-year pandemic. But it also tests the patience of people who are increasingly fed up with China’s harsh zero-COVID policy, which aims to isolate every case.
“In the beginning, people were scared and panicked,” Beybei said. “But with the publication of daily data, people have begun to accept that this particular virus is not so terrible.”
Babey was told she should be released on Monday after two negative tests while at the convention center.
Most of Shanghai has been closed since March 28, and its 25 million people have been ordered to stay at home. This has led to complaints of food shortages and growing economic losses.
Anyone who takes a positive test but shows little or no symptoms should spend a week in a quarantine facility. Babey said she had a stuffy nose and briefly lost some of her sense of taste and smell, but those symptoms went away in a few days.
On Sunday, China reported 26,155 new cases, all but 3,529 without symptoms. Shanghai accounts for 95% of the total, or 24,820, including 3,238 without symptoms.
The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, although a health official warned the city was out of control.
At the convention center, residents are checked twice a day for fever and told to record health information on mobile phones, according to Beibei. Most people spend their time reading, dancing, attending online classes or watching videos on mobile phones.
The 420,000-square-foot exhibition center (4.6 million square feet) is best known as the site of the world’s largest car show. Other quarantine facilities include temporary prefabricated buildings.
Residents of other establishments complain about leaking roofs, insufficient food supplies and delayed treatment for medical problems.
“We haven’t found a place with a hot shower,” Babey said. “The lights are on all night and it’s hard to fall asleep.”
A video obtained by the AP shows wet beds and floors due to a leaking roof in a different facility in a panel building.
“The bathrooms aren’t very clean,” Babey said. “So many people use them, and volunteers or cleaners can’t handle it.”
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