China's north-eastern province of Heilongjiang has emerged as the country's new epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak after reporting a sharp rise in new coronavirus cases recently. Now, video footage has emerged on social media purportedly showing an individual collapsing on the street in the in the province's capital city of Harbin.
Video of Man collapsing in Harbin
Human rights activist and China dissident Jennifer Zeng shared a video clip of what appears to be a man collapsed on the ground as emergency personnel wearing protective gear try to revive him. The incident reportedly took place outside the Maples International Area in Harbin on Thursday, April 16.
"Here we go again, this time at Maples International area in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in China, probably on Apr 16, 2020," Zeng captioned the clip.
In January, similar footage of infected men and women dropping on the streets "like flies" had emerged out of Wuhan, before the deadly COVID-19 virus spread rampantly around the world and evolved into a global pandemic that has infected more than 224,300 people and claimed over 154,700 lives.
Emergency lockdown measures enforced
Harbin has reported a surge in coronavirus cases recently and has emerged as the new epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in China. As of Friday, the Russia-bordering Heilongjiang province has reported a total of 508 local confirmed cases, 364 imported cases and another 47 asymptomatic cases, prompting authorities to enforce emergency lockdown measures across the city.
Although the government has not made any official announcements, several citizens have taken to social media to share video footage of the lockdown situation in the city. One of the videos shows comparative footage of Harbin's Hanguang Street on Friday, April 17th as opposed to just days earlier. While other clips reveal the draconian-style measures being implemented in the city with streets being blocked off with barricades.
As we previously reported, videos of long queues outside hospitals in the city have started circulating on the web, while while traffic police have blocked vehicles from entering local highways, and hospitals announced new rules to prevent the CCP virus from spreading.
Harbin officials punished for failing to contain outbreak
Eighteen officials from the city of Harbin have been disciplined over their failure to prevent COVID-19 from spreading locally, the provincial disciplinary committee said in a statement on its website on Friday, as reported by Chinese newspaper Global Times. The punished officials were in charge of the local COVID-19 prevention efforts and included Harbin Deputy Mayor and director of Harbin Health Commission, the statement said.
"The loopholes and shortcomings of anti-epidemic work, leading to the cases of cluster infection and nosocomial infection in Harbin, must be thoroughly investigated. We will resolutely contain the rebound and spread of the epidemic, and never allow it to ruin the national efforts against COVID-19," Wang Wentao, the governor of Heilongjiang Province, said during a video conference on Thursday night.
