Australians in Shanghai fearful of Covid-zero policy separating infected children from parents

Australian families living in Shanghai are becoming increasingly fearful of Covid lockdown policies that include separating children from their parents.

The policy – described by some expats as ‘inhumane’ – is part of a draconian elimination strategy by the Chinese Communist Party.

People who test positive to Covid, including children, are removed from their homes and placed into government quarantine centres – even if they’re asymptomatic.

Shanghai has been in a strict lockdown since March, but reported 24,820 new cases on Sunday. That number accounts for about 95 per cent of all cases identified in China in the 24 hour reporting period.

The city of 25 million people has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March.

Australian father-of-two Norman Lau, who has lived in Shanghai for almost two decades, said he’s terrified of the separation policy

In the same month, health authorities in Shanghai reported 305 infected children aged six and under in their quarantine facilities. 

Australian father-of-two Norman Lau, who has lived in Shanghai for almost two decades, told ABC he is terrified of the separation policy.

‘The risks of quarantine, separation from family… are even scarier than the risk of contracting Covid itself,’ Mr Lau said. He has two children aged 11 and 14.

For Ender Waters, a dual Australian-American citizen, the hardline stance is driving expats away from China.

He arrived in September 2020 after spending six months enduring lockdowns in Melbourne.

Several children in a metal-barred cot are wheeled through the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre as they are separated from their families after having contracted Covid

Shanghai health officials have defended a policy of separating babies and young children from their parents if they test positive for Covid-19 , amid growing frustration at the city’s zero-Covid policies

Unlike Melbourne’s on-again-off-again lockdowns, Mr Waters has noticed food scarcity in Shanghai.

‘That was never the case in Melbourne, we [could] always go to the grocery store and get food,’ he said.

The English-language teacher was among a group of expats that signed a petition against the separation of Covid-infected families. 

The petition was removed from the internet within two days. 

‘I think it’s a very inhumane policy,’ he said.

In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, people with mild and symptomatic cases of COVID-19 quarantine at the Shanghai New International Expo Center in Shanghai, Friday, April 1, 2022

Wu Qianyu, an official from the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, brushed aside the fears of local parents.

‘If the child is younger than seven years old, those children will receive treatment in a public health centre,’ he said last week.

‘For older children or teenagers… we are mainly isolating them in centralised (quarantine) places.’

Ms Wu claimed the policy was integral to virus ‘prevention and control work’.

‘We have made it clear that children whose parents are also positive… can live in the same place as the children,’ she added. 

A Covid patient inside one of the quarantine centres filmed the reported inhumane conditions in their facility in a bid to raise public awareness.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a medical worker conducts antigen testing for an elder resident in Shanghai, China, on Sunday, April 3, 2022

More than 200 patients, including young children, shared four toilets with no showers at the makeshift isolation hub on a vacant office floor.

President Xi Jinping insisted China sticks to the elimination policy, known as ‘dynamic Covid clearance’.

For Shanghai, the policy means converting schools, recently finished apartment blocks and exhibition halls into quarantine centres, the largest of which can hold 50,000 people. 

Diplomats from more than 30 countries have written to the Chinese foreign ministry urging authorities not to continue the brutal policy.

‘We request that under no circumstances should parents and children be separated,’ said a letter written by the French consulate in Shanghai that was addressed to the foreign affairs office of Shanghai on March 31.

Those residents who test positive to Covid are being forced to remain in quarantine warehouses until they can produce two consecutive negative PCR tests

In a separate letter to the Chinese foreign ministry dated the same day, the British embassy in Beijing said it was concerned by ‘recent instances when local authorities have sought to separate minors who tested positive for Covid-19 from their parents’ and requested assurances that this would not happen to diplomatic staff.

The French consulate and British embassy both said they were writing the letters on behalf of other countries, including including Australia and New Zealand, after hearing about difficulties caused by Shanghai’s lockdown.

Australian Ambassador to China Graham Fletcher described the situation as ‘very upsetting’.

‘Along with other governments with [a] presence in Shanghai, Australia has raised our concerns directly with the Chinese authorities, including about access to food, medical services, or the airport,’ he said.

Workers and volunteers look on in a compound where residents are tested for the Covid-19 coronavirus during the second stage of a pandemic lockdown in Jing’ an district in Shanghai