Shanghai outbreak: leaking, collapsing roofs latest embarrassment for China’s hastily built fangcang isolation centres
- Shanghai started to open fangcangs for Covid-19 patients just three weeks ago when the city was reporting thousands of cases a day
- Reports of food riots and people screaming from their apartments in desperation are filtering out as an unprepared government struggles
Footage of rain leaking in a Shanghai temporary coronavirus isolation shelter has caused further embarrassment for the Chinese government which is already under fire over the poor construction quality of its hastily built isolation facilities.
The video clip circulated quickly on social media on Wednesday, joining other videos taken by people stuck in isolation shelters, known as a fangcangs in China, which have created more fear among the public of being taken away than of the virus itself.
Except for elderly patients with a serious illness, the mainland policy requires all those infected with the coronavirus be taken away for quarantine, with those with mild or no symptoms staying in temporarily-built accommodation centres, or fangcang. Only serious patients will be sent to hospitals for treatment.
In a fangcang in Nanhui area in the Pudong District, rain leaked from the ceilings of many rooms on the early morning of Wednesday, a video taken by a male coronavirus carrier revealed.
The city’s meteorological authority recorded gale and storm conditions on that day. Some regions in the city experienced the biggest rainfall since the start of this year.
The man said in the video that some ceilings collapsed in the rain, stopping water and electricity supply to the rooms.