China evacuates thousands of residents along Myanmar border to stop Covid-19 spreading
- The authorities in Ruili in Yunnan order people living in Jiegao district to leave their homes and spend 14 days in a quarantine centre 100km away
- A local government source says the move is a ‘last resort’ because imported cases are helping to spread the disease inside China
More than 5,000 people from Jiegao district in Yunnan province were asked to pack their belongings on Monday and Tuesday and board buses taking them to a group quarantine centre in the city of Mangshi, 100km (62 miles) away.
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Chinese city on Myanmar border in Covid-19 lockdown amid fears of the spread of Delta variant
The local government had sent security and pandemic control teams to patrol the streets to make sure no one slipped across the border illegally and to protect people’s property, the source added.
The Jiegao bridge is a major road link between China and Myanmar, and the area was once a vibrant hub filled with jade and tin traders from both sides of the border.
“It was a very painful and difficult decision. As of this Wednesday, the district has been locked down for 150 days in total. It was already very tough for the residents,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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“But it is still listed as the only high-risk zone by Yunnan’s provincial health authority. We need to bite the bullet to quarantine all the residents in Mangshi for two weeks. There is no choice.”
He said the government had deported “a few thousand non-Chinese residents who had no proper documentation” back to their home countries – mainly Myanmar plus a few people from Laos.
A staff member at Ruili’s Covid-19 response command centre confirmed the evacuation had been completed but refused to give further details.
Clips of Jiegao residents dressed in white full-body protection gear boarding the bus to the quarantine centre began circulating on Chinese social media platforms on Monday.
A Jiegao resident surnamed Wang said the pandemic had taken a “heavy toll” on him because his jade trading store had been closed since March.
“My family is surviving on my depleted savings. So far we have not been allowed to leave home. I can’t even open an online shop because there is no one to pick up the goods to be delivered to buyers,” he said.
“The raw jade supply from Myanmar has been cut off, we have nothing to sell anyway.”
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As of Thursday, Myanmar has reported more than 380,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and over 14,700 deaths.
The coup in February triggered prolonged nationwide protests and strikes among its health workers, causing the health system to collapse and wrecking its vaccination and testing systems.
It continues to see a string of imported cases, some of which were found to be the source of subsequent local infections.
