Inside Shanghai quarantine: 24-hour lights, no hot showers

The National Exhibition and Convention Centre in China was converted into a quarantine facility set up for people who tested positive but have few or no symptoms on April 15, in Shanghai. Photo / AP

Beibei sleeps beside thousands of strangers in rows of cots in a high-ceilinged exhibition centre. The lights stay on all night, and the 30-year-old real estate saleswoman has yet to find a hot shower.

Beibei and her husband were ordered into the massive National Exhibition and Convention Centre in Shanghai last Tuesday after spending 10 days isolated at home following a positive test. Their 2-year-old daughter, who was negative, went to her grandfather, while her nanny also went into quarantine.

Residents show "no obvious symptoms", Beibei, who asked to be identified only by her given name, told The Associated Press in an interview by video phone.

"There are people coughing," she said. "But I have no idea if they have laryngitis or Omicron."

The convention centre, with 50,000 beds, is one of more than 100 quarantine facilities set up in China's most populous city for those such as Beibei who test positive but have few or no symptoms. It's part of official efforts to contain China's biggest coronavirus outbreak since the two-year-old pandemic began. But it's also testing the patience of people increasingly fed up with China's harsh "zero-Covid" policy that aims to isolate every case.

Medical workers wearing protective suits chat as a resident takes a rest at the newly converted quarantine facility in Shanghai. Photo / AP

"At the beginning, people were frightened and panicked," Beibei said. "But with the publication of daily figures, people have started to accept that this particular virus is not that horrible."

Beibei was told she was due to be released Monday after two negative tests while at the convention centre.

Most of Shanghai shut down starting March 28 and its 25 million people were ordered to stay home. That led to complaints about food shortages and soaring economic losses.

Anyone who tests positive but shows few or no symptoms is required to spend one week in a quarantine facility. Beibei said she had a stuffy nose and briefly lost part of her senses of taste and smell, but those symptoms passed in a few days.

On Sunday, China reported 26,155 new cases, all but 3,529 of which had no symptoms. Shanghai accounted for 95 per cent of the total, or 24,820, including 3,238 with no symptoms.

A temporary Covid-19 testing lab is seen in an arena in Shanghai, China. Photo / AP

The city has reported more than 300,000 cases since late March. Shanghai began easing restrictions last week, though a health official warned the city didn't have its outbreak under control.

At the convention centre, residents are checked twice a day for fever and told to record health information on mobile phones, according to Beibei. Most people pass the time by reading, square dancing, taking online classes or watching videos on mobile phones.

The 420,000sq m exhibition centre is best known as the site of the world's biggest car show. Other quarantine sites include temporary prefabricated buildings.

Residents of other facilities have complained about leaky roofs, inadequate food supplies and delays in treatment for medical problems.

Meal for the people in the Chinese quarantine facility in Shanghai. Photo / AP

"We haven't found a place with a hot shower," Beibei said. "Lights are on all night, and it's hard to fall asleep."

A video obtained by AP showed wet beds and floors due to a leaky roof in a different facility in a prefabricated building.

"Bathrooms are not very clean," Beibei said. "So many people use them, and volunteers or cleaners can't keep up."