The son of a dialysis patient pleaded with checkpoint officers to allow his mum to receive treatment during a lockdown in Xi’an City in China.
The man said his mother goes to a hospital in Xixian District three days per week to undergo hemodialysis. However, quarantine staff reportedly stopped them despite being shown medical certificates as proof of the patient’s condition.
Footage taken on December 6 shows the man explaining the situation to the officers who were stationed at a checkpoint on Baimahe road.
Residents in Xi’an City have reportedly been frustrated because of a looming food shortage, as well as confusing rules that kept changing, depending on the number of infections per district.
With a population of about 13 million, the city was placed under indefinite lockdown on December 23 following a flare-up of virus infections.
The lockdown is considered the most severe since 2020, when the city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of Covid-19, was closed off during the earlier months of the pandemic.
Despite its neighbours in the region learning to live with the virus, China has maintained its stringent zero-Covid approach, enforcing severe lockdowns to purge Covid-19 from the country. The latest flare-up comes as China prepares to host the Winter Olympics on February 2022.