The family of a 14-year-old girl who died after being placed in a COVID quarantine facility in China are demanding justice, claiming that their pleas for medical assistance were disregarded.
Guo Jingjing, 14, became ill with a fever two days after being admitted to the hospital in Ruzhou, Henan province, last Friday.
Jingjing's death and the circumstances surrounding it have sparked outrage on social media, with individuals expressing their outrage at her treatment and criticizing President Xi Jinping's COVID policies, which are controversial among many Chinese people.
In videos posted by the girl's family, her father Guo Lele claimed that center staff had neglected to treat Jingjing as her condition deteriorated. In China, which continues to maintain rigorous pandemic controls, videos showing her shaking and convulsing on a bed caused an online outcry.
He said in a video posted to the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, that she had started to "convulse, dehydrated and shaking" on Sunday.
"Health workers at the center took no care of her, no one even inquired," he said in the video, which was widely shared before censors took it down in some places.
Mr. Guo's video, as well as another posted by Jingjing's aunt pleading for justice, have been increasingly restricted over the last 48 hours.
"I'm requesting the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Discipline Inspection Commission come down to investigate the Ruzhou government's neglect... and give my daughter's life back!" he said.
Netizens swiftly brought up a September bus disaster in which 27 people were killed while being transported to a quarantine center. However, the incident has not been covered in Chinese media, which several users attributed to a "media blackout" during this week's important Communist Party session, during which Xi's tenure is expected to be extended.
According to China's COVID regulations, anyone afflicted or in close contact with an infected person must be quarantined at a state-run quarantine facility.
It's unclear whether Jingjing had COVID or if she was quarantined because she was a contact.
According to family members, Jingjing was brought to a quarantine facility established at a nearby school and put in a different building from her father. Many of the minors kept at these facilities around the region are separated from their families and number in the hundreds.
Additionally, there have been numerous reports this year of patients in the centers not receiving the required medical attention because there aren't many doctors allocated to such facilities.
