‘OPEN THE DOOR!’

Chinese COVID Rules Trapped Residents Inside During Deadly Earthquake

Grim videos shared online showed locals desperately trying to flee their quarantine.

Residents in the Chinese city of Chengdu were filmed being prevented from fleeing buildings during a powerful earthquake due to Beijing’s stringent COVID rules. Social-media users reacted with shocked disbelief to footage that appeared to show a brutal enforcement of China’s strictly “zero-COVID” pandemic management policy during Monday’s 6.6-magnitude quake, which has left at least 65 people dead. In some apartment buildings were COVID cases are detected, the entire premises is designated a “sealed area” in which any inhabitants are prevented from leaving—even if they don’t have the virus. Videos shared Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, showed Chengdu locals desperately pleading to be let out from behind locked gates. One clip appears to show a man shouting at a security guard: “Hurry up, open the door! It’s an earthquake!” The guard replies: “It’s over, the earthquake’s over.”