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Inicio » English » Weather » China earthquake death toll rises to 65 as millions are on COVID lockdown

China earthquake death toll rises to 65 as millions are on COVID lockdown

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  • Death toll from powerful earthquake in China rises to 65.
  • The earthquake caused heavy landslides in several areas.
  • The city of Chengdu maintains Covid-19 lockdown despite a deadly earthquake.

The authorities of the city of Chengdu, in southwestern China, kept its 21 million residents under a strict Covid-19 lockdown despite the powerful earthquake that caused at least 65 deaths in peripheral areas.

Images circulating online Tuesday showed operatives, dressed in haz-mat suits, preventing residents in apartment buildings from exiting through closed lobby doors following Monday’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake that took place in Sichuan province, which includes the Chengdu.

China earthquake death toll rises to 65

china earthquake
Photo: AP

Buildings in Chengdu and other parts of western China were shaken by the tremor but no damage was reported in the city. The quake hit a mountainous area in Luding county which sits on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Chengdu, in an area where two tectonic plates meet.

Despite only a handful of Covid cases being recorded, Chengdu’s lockdown is China’s most severe imposed on the country since the one in Shanghai over the summer, which caused unusual protests both in person and online, according to The Associated Press.

Authorities make a surprising decision

EARTHQUAKE
Photo: AP

The Chinese authoritarian communist system demands strict adherence to the measures dictated by the central leadership, largely dominated by the leader of the ruling Communist Party, Xi Jinping. Local leaders, including the newly appointed Sichuan Provincial Party Secretary, are often dispatched from Beijing with little knowledge of the situation on the ground and with a strong mandate to enforce Xi’s dictates.

Shanghai’s strict and often chaotic lockdown has led to widespread complaints about shortages of food, drugs and access to health care. In a sign of little progress in this regard, at least one district in Chengdu has banned even ordering food and coffee to go, according to a notice posted online. Filed Under: Deadly earthquake in China

Thousands of people were left homeless after the earthquake

earthquake
Photo: AP

Beijing maintains its strict «zero Covid» policy — with mandatory virus testing, lockdowns, quarantines and the use of masks — despite the recommendations of the World Health Organization and the fact that most countries in the world have tried to return to normality since the virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

China on Tuesday reported 1,499 new locally transmitted cases, most of them asymptomatic. Of them, 138 were registered in Sichuan. In the historic town of Moxi, in the Tibetan autonomous prefecture of Garze, where there were 37 deaths, the power supply was interrupted buildings were damaged. Tents were set up to shelter the more than 50,000 people who were evicted from their homes, which were no longer safe after the earthquake, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. Filed Under: Deadly earthquake in China

Hundreds of injuries reported

earthquake

Photo: AP

State broadcaster CCTV showed rescue teams pulling an apparently uninjured woman out of a collapsed house in Moxi, where many of the buildings are made of a mixture of wood and bricks. According to reports, around 150 people suffered injuries of varying degrees in that area.

Another 28 people were killed in neighboring Shimian County, outside the city of Ya’an. In addition, according to state media, 248 people were reported injured, mostly in Moxi, and another 16 people were missing. In addition to the deaths, authorities reported mudslides that caused damage to homes, interruptions in the power supply and left several trapped on the other side of a newly created lake. An avalanche blocked a country road, leaving it littered with rocks. Filed Under: Deadly earthquake in China

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