Monday, April 4, 2022

Covid-19 Series: Censorship of Two Articles About Infections in Shanghai Nursing Home

This blog has previously covered censorship of news reports about the COVID-19 situation China, see "Covid-19 Series: Censorship of News Reports Critical of the Government's Response."

On April 2, 2022, a news editor at the state-sponsored media outlet "Sixth Tone" posted on Twitter that one of their reports titled "Orderlies at Shanghai Nursing Home Describe Chaos Amid Outbreak" regarding the COVID situation at Shanghai's Donghai Elderly Care Hospital had been "disappeared." https://twitter.com/bibekbhandari/status/1510142365100646400

 Some excerpts:

Substitute orderlies at one of Shanghai’s largest old age homes said they were unaware during recruitment that their tasks would involve nursing residents infected with the coronavirus. They described a chaotic situation: workers trapped in the hospital, a lack of basic hygiene in living quarters, and mixing COVID-19 patients with others.
. . . .
Shanghai has seen a daily uptick in coronavirus cases for weeks now, and the city on Monday announced a two-phase lockdown to test its nearly 25 million people and contain the virus. Authorities have said that most new infections were detected either among people in central quarantine facilities or those in elevated risk areas that were sealed even before the lockdown started.

However, the outbreak at the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital suggests the existence of a hidden chain of transmission that hadn’t previously been reported in the city.

His tweet included a link to an archived version of the article: https://web.archive.org/web/20220401105539/https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010042/.

The same day, observers noted that another story about the COVID situation in a Shanghai elder care center had also been deleted, this time it was an article from the state sponsored media outlet Caixin (财新网) titled "COVID-19 Hits Donghai Nursing Home" (新冠侵袭东海养老院). An archive of the original paywalled-version is available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20220402091703/https://www.caixin.com/2022-04-02/101865276.html. The full article is archived here: http://archive.today/2022.04.04-002623/https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss0hpi. Below is a translation of the portion of the text originally available outside the paywall.

COVID-19 Hits Donghai Nursing Home

The weakest link in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic is under attack. Some medical staff in the Donghai Nursing Home have been transferred and quarantined. There is not enough to ensure the welfare of the patients and the elderly in the facility. The management of the temporarily recruited nurses is scattered, and the normal care order has suffered a huge impact.

Nursing homes, the weakest link in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, have been hit by the COVID-19 virus in this round of the Shanghai epidemic.

After Puxi, which has a population of 16 million, launched lock-downs and screening on April 2, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission announced that on April 1, 260 new local confirmed cases of COVID pneumonia and 6,051 asymptomatic infections were added. A new high for this round of the epidemic. According to comprehensive information, the number of infected people in Shanghai reached more than 36,000 in March alone, and most of them were asymptomatic infections. Unfortunately, many elderly care facilities are deeply involved in the epidemic. Based on the information reported by the Shanghai Health and Health Commission, the Shinan Nursing Home and Donghai Nursing Hospital in the Pudong New Area have experienced recurring COVID-19 outbreaks. Caixin has learned from multiple sources that there have been hundreds of positive infections at the Donghai Elderly Care Hospital, including the elderly, hospital nurses, and health care workers. Recently, elderly individuals have died in nursing homes, and whether this is related to COVID-19 has not yet been determined.


新冠侵袭东海养老院

新冠疫情防控最薄弱的环节被击中。东海养老院一些医护人员被转移隔离,院中病患或老人生活保障不足,临时招募的护工管理散乱,正常照护秩序遭受巨大冲击

养老护理院,新冠疫情防控最薄弱的环节,在此轮上海疫情中被新冠病毒击中。

在1600万人口的浦西启动封控筛查后,4月2日,上海市卫健委通报: 4月1日新增本土新冠肺炎确诊病例260例和无症状感染者6051例。再创本轮疫情新高。综合通报信息,上海感染者仅3月一个月已达3.6万余人,多为无症状感染者。多家养老机构不幸深陷疫情。综合上海卫健委通报信息,浦东新区市南养老院和东海老年护理医院曾先后出现新冠疫情。财新从多个信源获悉,东海老年护理医院的阳性感染者已达上百人,其中包括老人、医院医护以及护工。近期养老院已有老人去世,是否与新冠有关暂未能确定。



Translation: Xu Zhiyong's Statement in His Own Defense

 Source: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/694913.html China Digital Times: On April 10, 2023, Xu Zhiyong, a well-known human rights de...