China’s strict COVID policies took a sharp and deadly turn as a quarantine bus crash impacted all 47 on board.
The crash happened early Sunday morning, according to Reuters.
The bus, serving as a shuttle in the country’s obsessive “Zero COVID” war against coronavirus, overturned while traveling through Guizhou in southwest China.
Of the 47 passengers, more than half were killed in the highway disaster.
Only 20 people made it out of the crash alive. All of the survivors were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Pictures of the wrecked bus show a crumpled top and side, underscoring the crash’s destructive nature.
Twenty-seven people were killed and 20 others injured after a bus turned on its side in #China‘s Guizhou Province early Sunday morning. pic.twitter.com/TTMYugVg6Q
— IANS (@ians_india) September 18, 2022
According to Chinese social media posts reviewed by the South China Morning Post, this was no ordinary shuttle.
The ride, part of the country’s no-tolerance outbreak controls, was allegedly slated to move contacts of confirmed COVID cases to a quarantine camp.
Any further discussion of the bus was quickly blocked by internet censors.
This is hardly the first of the casualties inflicted under China’s COVID policies. Many are finding it difficult to have routine health problems checked in a timely manner.
One Shanghai nurse even died after she was unable to get treatment for a routine issue, Global Times reported.
The woman first rushed to the hospital where she worked after realizing she was suffering from an asthma attack. Unfortunately, the hospital’s emergency room was closed for disinfection.
While striving for a hermetically sealed populace, Chinese authorities have locked down tens of millions since the first outbreak of COVID in the city of Wuhan over two years ago.
As recently as this year, China was sealing off cities with populations in the millions in a desperate bid to control the epidemic.
While the over-the-top measures have kept China’s official COVID infection numbers low, the same regulations and rules have made daily life even more dystopian for the average Chinese citizen.
It’s important to note that these crushing measures have reduced instances of COVID infection, but they have not eliminated the virus’ presence among China’s 1.4 billion people.
As many Americans saw firsthand, the negative impact of lockdowns is still being felt across the country. Unfortunately for the Chinese people, ongoing restrictions mean they may never get a full picture of how much “Zero COVID” truly costs.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.