Lhasa officials apologise for improper handling of Covid lockdown

LHASA: Dradul, executive deputy mayor of Lhasa, Tibet has apologized to the public for the city not tackling the Covid situation well in regards to prevention and controls, reported China Daily.

In a news briefing on Saturday, acknowledging the deficiencies of the government's work in the preparation, handling, response and implementation of its Covid-19 prevention measures and policies, Dradul apologized during the briefing.

"For example, how the inadequate nucleic acid testing capabilities at the early stages of the outbreak led to an inadequate follow-up of nucleic acid screening in some communities, and the feedback of testing results was delayed, and the inaccurate of some testing results," said Dradul.

Dradul also said many residents, who share public toilets and the same drinking water points from large compounds in Lhasa, were transferred to places favourable for epidemic prevention and control, and to avoid possible cross-infection.

"Due to emergency, the residents were not given the explanation of the transferring in advance," added Dradul, reported China Daily. Moreover, the insufficiencies also include the poor management of some makeshift hospitals, as these temporary hospitals were set up immediately to treat the patients.

Meanwhile, some of the temporary hospitals were unqualified for logistic support, they had problems such as untimely cleaning and waste disposal.

"On behalf of the city's government, I would like to express my deep apologies to all the people of the city and those who got stranded in Lhasa due to the pandemic," said Dradul, adding that the city's government will directly face all challenges, and improve the deficiencies to further optimize its epidemic prevention and control measures.

Lhasa reported 11 locally confirmed Covid-19 cases and 178 asymptomatic carriers on Sunday, all detected at quarantine sites, according to a statement released by the office of Lhasa's leading group for fighting Covid-19, reported China Daily.

Meanwhile, three Tibetans are reportedly died of Covid as the Chinese authorities failed to give them timely medical care, Radio Free Asia reported citing sources.

There is an upsurge in the Covid cases in Tibet and as per the media outlet quoting sources, the Tibetans are being held in quarantine facilities by the Chinese authorities without proper medical care or sanitation and irrespective of the fact whether the people have Covid or not.

In the case of these three deaths, all of them died at home after failing to receive timely medical care, sources told RFA. "They died because they did not get the treatment they needed on time," one source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Moreover, as per reports, there are discrepancies in terms of the number of Covid deaths in Tibet reported by the Chinese government. According to the RFA source, the Chinese government has not reported a single death due to Covid in Tibet. The RFA source shared some painstaking details of the inside story of Tibet's quarantine facilities.

"But we believe that many Tibetans have died, and the authorities are confining people together in quarantine facilities whether they are Covid positive or not," the source said.

He gave the background of the three persons who died of Covid at their homes due to the lack of facilities.

Sources in Tibet and in exile identified the dead as Penpa Tsering from Lhasa Toelung Dechen (in Chinese, Duilongdeqing); Ajho Penpa from Shigatse (Rikaze); and an unidentified Tibetan in Gyantse (Jiangzi).

Local netizens complain of harsh and unsanitary quarantine procedures, RFA has learned.