China: COVID Quarantine Bus Suffers Deadly Crash
Facts
- 27 people died and 20 were injured in China when a COVID quarantine bus in the southwest province of Guizhou “flipped onto its side”, according to local police.
- Only two people have reportedly died from COVID in Guizhou province since the pandemic started. China’s “zero-COVID” policy includes mass testing, tracking, and isolating those infected and their close contacts.
- The accident reportedly triggered some negative comments about COVID policies on Chinese social media platforms. These comments later disappeared, however.
- Local government agencies affirmed that response operations are completed and that an investigation is underway.
- Guizhou has seen more than 900 new COVID infections in the past two days. Guiyang, the capital of the province and home to 6M people, was locked down earlier this month.
Sources: The Guardian, BBC News, Independent, Gbcode, and Dawn.
Narratives
- Pro-China narrative, as provided by Global Times. While authorities must pursue the cause of the accident and those at fault must bare responsibility and the consequences, quarantine transfer is an important tool in preventing and controlling the virus. Steps must be taken to correct mistakes, but that doesn’t mean the zero-COVID quarantines are the root cause.
- Anti-China narrative, as provided by CTV. Although PRC officials rushed to erase online outrage, there is growing resentment toward the zero-COVID policy which continues to show little sign of long-term success. The situation regarding this ‘quarantine bus’ shows a potential disregard for health and safety and indicates that zero-COVID deserves to be critiqued.