Coronavirus: authorities apologise for medical woes in locked down Xinjiang prefecture

The authorities in Xinjiang’s Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture have apologised publicly and promised to ensure access to medical services after a massive online backlash over food shortages and other problems amid an anti-pandemic lockdown that has lasted more than a month.

After a flood of online messages with videos, recordings and pictures showing desperate residents crying for help, the local government held a news conference on Friday night.

It did not directly address the online complaints about large-scale food shortages since the lockdown started in early August and claims that the Covid-19 outbreak in the prefecture was much more serious than the government had admitted.

But government officials said they would ensure enough food supplies and organise squads to help send food to locked down families.

The prefecture’s deputy governor, Liu Qinghua, said the problems accessing medical services “as complained about by the public in Yining city [also known as Gulja] did exist and it reflects many shortcomings and weaknesses of the work of the local authorities … the party committee and government want to express their deepest apology for the disruption of life caused to all ethnicities”.