After a Covid rise in China, people were ‘bolted inside their own homes’.

Footage has surfaced online that claims to show people in China being confined to their houses in order to stop Covid-19 from spreading.

Clips circulating on Chinese social media show what appear to be public health workers wearing PPE locking individuals in their homes with wires and iron bolts.

According to the independent journal Caixin Global, the drastic approach is being used on people who refuse to hand up their keys so they can be locked in from the outside.

The recordings have sparked unusual public indignation in China, with many people taking to social media to express how hazardous it is for individuals to be imprisoned in their homes with no way out in an emergency.

On Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, a person wrote: “I’m furious. They don’t treat people like human beings.”

Officials in Qianan County responded to criticism by blaming local residential communities for their “simplistic and radical tactics” of controlling Covid spread.

On the Chinese app WeChat, the Qianan Pandemic Prevention and Control Office stated it is “investigating and will alter the policy” and is looking into “the possibility of installing alarms to replace present ways.”

Farmers in Qianan have also been prohibited from working in the fields, yet video has emerged of people slipping out in the dead of night to plough.

For more than a month, millions of people in Shanghai have been living under draconian lockdown restrictions.

China is one of the few countries that still adheres to a rigorous “zero Covid” policy.

It is attempting to contain a spike in cases in Beijing after dozens of people tested positive for the virus in recent days, prompting local officials to conduct mass testing in most districts, close schools, prohibit meetings and inside dining in all eateries, and lock down some areas.

Hundreds of subway stations and transport routes have also been shut down throughout the city.

Covid rise in China