A man wearing a protective face mask looks out from a train in Beijing on April 28.
The families accuse the Wuhan and Hubei provincial governments of concealing the outbreak when it first emerged there late last year, failing to alert the public, and bungling the response, allowing Covid-19 to explode out of control.“They say the epidemic was a natural calamity. But these serious outcomes are man-made, and you need to find who’s to blame,” said Zhong, 67.
It held a grand ceremony in Beijing last week, where President Xi Jinping declared the nation had passed an “extraordinary and historic test” through a swift and transparent response.By late January, the contagion was spreading rapidly in Wuhan, but officials had still issued no citywide alarm. For the next two agonising weeks, they spent long hours in overwhelmed hospitals begging to get him admitted, but without a positive result – and with testing kits scarce – he was repeatedly turned away.He died on a respirator two weeks later.
Others also have reported official intimidation, and next-of-kin chat groups have been infiltrated by police, Zhang alleged, blaming Wuhan’s government.Wuhan’s government did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.