Man convinced Covid sealed itself in car and created makeshift quarantine unit – World News

The unnamed Beijing resident took self-isolation to the extreme when, upon learning he had been exposed to the coronavirus, he locked himself in his car and didn’t even open the door to get food

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China: Residents in lockdown scream from apartment blocks

A man convinced Covid had locked himself in a makeshift quarantine facility in his own car for 10 hours.

The unnamed Beijing resident had decorators at his home on Tuesday morning when he was told one or more of them had tested positive for coronavirus.

He then went outside, climbed into his white coupe and didn’t move until 10pm that night – he didn’t even bother to take a test.

“I knew that my risk of infection was very high, so I tried to avoid contact with anyone to avoid trouble with others,” the cautious man later explained.

“Right after I found out about this, I stayed in my car without even opening the window. I should do that for public health.”

Although his isolation was self-imposed, at least initially, photos taken at the scene show his car had been locked from the outside with an official Covid-19 quarantine notice. He did not address who put the tape around the vehicle as he was stuck inside.

At around 5pm he got hungry and ordered KFC, but didn’t get out of the car even then.

“It was contactless delivery,” he said.

“The delivery man left my food on the curb and I went to pick it up after he left.”

It is not yet clear whether he has been officially tested for the virus.

State agency China News Service reported the man’s bizarre situation in an apparent attempt to persuade other Beijing residents to take similar precautions should they be exposed to Covid-19.

China’s major cities have so far been forced into the strict lockdown measures seen in the pandemic, with citizens in Shanghai having fenced off their own homes to contain potential positive cases.

Last week, residents woke up to green fences installed by authorities overnight to restrict people’s movement as the city faces its worst spike in coronavirus since the pandemic began.

Those with fences in front of their homes – in a sealed area – have been unable to leave their properties whether they have the virus or not.

Images of officers in white hazmat suits patrolling the city and cordoning off certain areas with green fences were shared wildly on social media.

Shanghai’s 25million residents have now been in lockdown for weeks due to the surge in Covid cases, although some restrictions were finally eased this weekend after a second day of no cases outside the quarantine zones.

The extremely strict lockdown has already pushed the citizens of Shanghai to their limits, with babies and toddlers being separated from their parents under the rules in place.

The rules are part of China’s zero-Covid policy, which aims to completely eradicate the virus from the country.

Infection rates across the country remained fairly low when the pandemic began, but cases have increased as variants have become more transmissible.