Horror scenes at an Ikea … after a contact case

Fears of being detained for a single contact case caused panic at an Ikea store in Shanghai last weekend, according to viral images confirmed by AFP.

China applies a strict health strategy in the wake of COVID-19: detention of people who test positive, targeted quarantines or generalized and mandatory PCR tests.

Earlier in the spring, the financial capital Shanghai went into lockdown for two months in response to the country’s worst outbreak in two years.

For a single contact case at an Ikea store on Saturday, authorities tried to keep all customers of the Swedish furniture giant under quarantine.

Videos widely shared on social media show families blocked by glass doors at the store.

In other images, customers can be seen rushing out of an Ikea store in the Xuhui district through what appears to be an emergency exit.

The huddled security guards are struggling to keep the doors closed.

Such a scenario is not uncommon in China.

Also in Shanghai, employees were on their heels Friday after a case of contact in an office building in Huangpu district, according to pictures confirmed by AFP.

Strict measures to fight the virus, including systematically keeping positive cases in quarantine centers, have recently angered some of the population in China.

At the beginning of the month, 80,000 tourists were confined to the tropical island of Hainan (South), a popular destination in China at this time of year.

Few have since been able to return to their hometowns, leaving tens of thousands of vacationers stranded on the island.

Frustrated, one party demanded a meeting with local officials last weekend, according to footage confirmed by AFP.

China reported 2,368 new local COVID-19 positive cases on Tuesday.

Since 2020, the country has closed its borders to foreign tourists due to the pandemic.