Reports of teenager dying in Covid quarantine cause outcry in China

Reports that a 16-year-old girl has died in a Covid Quarantine centre after her family begged for help have caused anger in China, where ongoing tight Pandemic controls have started to take their toll.

The videos of the girl have been viewed millions of times on Chinese social media. The distressing footage, which the Guardian has not been able to independently verify, shows the teenager ill, struggling to breathe and convulsing in a bunk bed at what is purported to be a quark center in Ruzhou.

In the video, a woman who claims to be the girl's aunt says her niece died after she vomited and had a high temperature. She said the family had been asking for help but no one came for days.

She said that they had been calling for help since 3am and couldn't get through. I want my family and friends to see the video so I can seek justice. I don't know why she died.

The most important meeting of China's five-year political cycle is taking place in Beijing. The authorities have been under a lot of pressure to make sure there are no signs of unrest during the meeting.

In a rare protest in Beijing last week, inflammatory slogans against the president were hung from a bridge. In other locations, the same slogans have appeared.

There were 26 cases reported on Tuesday and 13 on Monday in Henan, which has a population of 100 million. China has a zero- Covid policy. It has resulted in a mass quarantining of cases and people considered to be close to each other.

Thousands of people in Ruzhou have been taken into centralised quark in the last few weeks. According to the girl's aunt, her niece was not sick when she arrived.

Many people who don't have Covid fear being locked in or away from their homes or being taken away to a Quarantine centre because they don't have Covid.

There have been repeated cases of people being denied medical care by overzealous officials because of strict rules requiring negative tests to enter hospitals, or because services have appeared overwhelmed. The officials were punished after the public uproar.

The girl's death did not appear to have been reported in Chinese media as of Wednesday afternoon, but still prompted an uproar on social media, with some referencing a bus crash last month that killed 27 people who were being taken to a quark center.

One person wrote that the whole country deserved an explanation.

There is no one to deal with the system that is paralyzed. The tragedy must not happen again. Making this statement is not to cause panic, but the citizens are powerless and will hold on to hope. The Guardian was watching it.

The most viewed post was "Ruzhou girl dies unexpectedly" Posts about the death of a girl in Ruzhou were removed on Wednesday morning. Several comments directed anger at the effort to censor discussion, with some suggesting it was to avoid causing trouble during the politically sensitive week of congress.

I don't know how many sick people are out there that don't have anyone to take care of them. We will help if you need us to. One person asked officials to issue a notice instead of always quieting down the hot topic search.

Several accused authorities of being willing to drain a lake to find a fish, but not be able to answer a family's call for medical help, in reference to a recent month-long effort by authorities to remove an Invasive fish from a Ruzhou lake, but not be able

The health authorities in Ruzhou were not reachable.