While China has long been claiming that it has successfully managed the COVID-19 crisis and vaccinated its people, videos emerging from several cities of the country paint an entirely different picture. The videos puncture the claims made by the Chinese Communist Party and demonstrate how China is struggling to effectively vaccinate its citizens.
A video that was recently shared on Twitter by a Chinese human rights activist showed a huge crowd of people, presumably in the hundreds, lining up outside a vaccination centre at Jixian County of the Jiangxi province of China. In the video, one can see hundreds of people jostling each other outside the vaccination centre, trying desperately hard to get inside and get themselves vaccinated.
Unbelievable. At the #CCPVirus #COVID19 #Vaccination site at Jinxian County, #Jiangxi Province in #CCP‘s #China.
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) May 25, 2021
By the way, my 78 y/o mum in #Sichuan province in China told me yesterday that she just got vaccinated. Initially only people under 60 could get the vaccine. pic.twitter.com/GTEOrOuhn6
Long queue of people waiting to get vaccinated seen outside a hospital in Guangzhou
Similarly, another video from Guangzhou, a sprawling port city northwest of Hong Kong, showed inordinately long queues of people standing outside a hospital to receive their COVID-19 jab. The video was shot by a bystander who rode a bicycle for approximately 2:12 minutes along the length of the queue which stretched to out many blocks away from the hospital. Thousands of people were seen patiently waiting in the queue as the user rode along the line.
Long queues seen outside vaccination centres across Guangzhou. Southern Daily said more than 36 million people in Guangdong had received one jab. Vaccine line outside Guangzhou City Hospital, it’s easy to criticize Indian Govt without knowing the reality in other countries. pic.twitter.com/bgNFryMqwy
— Eagle Eye (@SortedEagle) May 28, 2021
It is being reported that there has been a fresh surge of infections in many cities of China, including Guangzhou where people rushed to the vaccination centres, resulting in long queues outside vaccination centres. Consequently, the Chinese government issued a stay-at-home orders for residents in several streets that have seen resurgent coronavirus outbreak.
The Guangzhou government in South China’s Guangdong Province issued a directive, asking residents in five streets in Liwan district to stay at home, and allowing only one person of each household to buy necessities every day.
Nevertheless, the videos of desperate people thronging to vaccination centres run counter to the claims made by China that it has been successful in warding off the coronavirus threat and is efficiently vaccinating its people. Questions are now also being raised on the efficacy of the Chinese-made vaccines—whether they are good enough to prevent the vaccinated people from contracting the infection.
The world’s most vaccinated country, Seychelles, recently reported an inexplicable rise in the COVID-19 cases, raising doubts on China’s Sinopharm vaccine that is used to vaccinate its people. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are now mulling over giving a third dose of Sinopharm to their people after the previous two doses proved to be largely insufficient to stop the spread of the virus in their respective countries.
