Berliner Boersenzeitung - China's ex-Covid patients live under 'dark shadow' of stigma

EUR -
AED 4.291518
AFN 81.206138
ALL 97.736885
AMD 448.444329
ANG 2.09153
AOA 1071.424762
ARS 1538.513486
AUD 1.78876
AWG 2.103124
AZN 1.953872
BAM 1.968524
BBD 2.359451
BDT 142.128682
BGN 1.955894
BHD 0.440525
BIF 3446.786616
BMD 1.168402
BND 1.503615
BOB 8.075718
BRL 6.311939
BSD 1.168553
BTN 102.445758
BWP 15.732702
BYN 3.857783
BYR 22900.683958
BZD 2.347424
CAD 1.609638
CDF 3376.682411
CHF 0.942217
CLF 0.028498
CLP 1117.98599
CNY 8.388193
CNH 8.392067
COP 4697.561217
CRC 591.159042
CUC 1.168402
CUP 30.962659
CVE 110.823138
CZK 24.469798
DJF 207.648098
DKK 7.462655
DOP 71.769097
DZD 152.001424
EGP 56.57635
ERN 17.526034
ETB 163.430286
FJD 2.631008
FKP 0.865009
GBP 0.864916
GEL 3.148828
GGP 0.865009
GHS 12.316664
GIP 0.865009
GMD 84.709161
GNF 10134.46136
GTQ 8.965953
GYD 244.495972
HKD 9.17187
HNL 30.773487
HRK 7.537947
HTG 153.210101
HUF 395.845331
IDR 18970.687023
ILS 3.984129
IMP 0.865009
INR 102.47131
IQD 1530.797603
IRR 49218.944625
ISK 143.258403
JEP 0.865009
JMD 186.928263
JOD 0.828386
JPY 172.848949
KES 151.308759
KGS 102.059755
KHR 4681.045545
KMF 492.481294
KPW 1051.489033
KRW 1616.080316
KWD 0.35698
KYD 0.973857
KZT 632.075665
LAK 25270.05346
LBP 104680.536659
LKR 351.8544
LRD 235.208338
LSL 20.682857
LTL 3.449988
LVL 0.706755
LYD 6.344856
MAD 10.572984
MDL 19.465373
MGA 5176.354661
MKD 61.585983
MMK 2452.751192
MNT 4202.030238
MOP 9.449284
MRU 46.648422
MUR 53.080516
MVR 17.994329
MWK 2027.428281
MXN 21.703913
MYR 4.931815
MZN 74.731006
NAD 20.682857
NGN 1792.909864
NIO 43.007993
NOK 11.922609
NPR 163.902449
NZD 1.961015
OMR 0.449248
PAB 1.168402
PEN 4.122345
PGK 4.852771
PHP 66.419579
PKR 331.726434
PLN 4.257197
PYG 8752.483121
QAR 4.254983
RON 5.06467
RSD 117.191251
RUB 92.829566
RWF 1689.495058
SAR 4.384877
SBD 9.616642
SCR 17.226659
SDG 701.623887
SEK 11.149548
SGD 1.498429
SHP 0.918181
SLE 27.108464
SLL 24500.810237
SOS 667.786307
SRD 43.719857
STD 24183.567431
STN 24.850587
SVC 10.225092
SYP 15191.507565
SZL 20.678146
THB 37.787268
TJS 10.92683
TMT 4.101092
TND 3.377074
TOP 2.813232
TRY 47.600159
TTD 7.929765
TWD 35.021103
TZS 3002.794345
UAH 48.486104
UGX 4159.864664
USD 1.168402
UYU 46.790316
UZS 14686.463752
VES 155.108362
VND 30694.923497
VUV 139.682586
WST 3.10576
XAF 656.222332
XAG 0.03051
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.157666
XCG 2.106012
XDR 0.820612
XOF 656.222332
XPF 119.331742
YER 280.737791
ZAR 20.523091
ZMK 10517.007643
ZMW 26.966032
ZWL 376.225045
  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    73.08

    0%

  • BCC

    3.5200

    84.26

    +4.18%

  • JRI

    -0.0100

    13.38

    -0.07%

  • CMSC

    0.0200

    23.08

    +0.09%

  • NGG

    -0.9500

    70.28

    -1.35%

  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • RIO

    0.9600

    63.1

    +1.52%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    16.19

    +1.42%

  • CMSD

    -0.0107

    23.56

    -0.05%

  • RELX

    -0.2100

    47.83

    -0.44%

  • BCE

    0.1500

    24.5

    +0.61%

  • GSK

    0.5100

    38.22

    +1.33%

  • BTI

    -0.4100

    57.92

    -0.71%

  • RYCEF

    0.6400

    14.94

    +4.28%

  • VOD

    0.0300

    11.54

    +0.26%

  • AZN

    1.2700

    75.34

    +1.69%

  • BP

    0.1200

    34.07

    +0.35%

China's ex-Covid patients live under 'dark shadow' of stigma
China's ex-Covid patients live under 'dark shadow' of stigma / Photo: Jade GAO - AFP/File

China's ex-Covid patients live under 'dark shadow' of stigma

When Zuo tested positive for Covid-19 while working as a cleaner in one of Shanghai's largest quarantine centres, she hoped it wouldn't be long before she could pick up the mop and start earning again.

Text size:

But four months on, she is still fighting to get her job back -- one of scores of recovering Covid patients facing what labour rights activists and health experts say is a widespread form of discrimination in zero-Covid China.

Using snap lockdowns and mass testing, China is the last major economy still pursuing the goal of stamping out the virus completely.

Those who test positive, as well as their contacts, are all sent to central quarantine facilities, while a flare-up in a factory can grind production to a halt.

Rights groups say the strict rules are feeding Covid-related discrimination and shutting out thousands of people from China's already bleak job market -- with migrant workers and young people hit hardest.

"People are afraid they might contract the virus from us, so they shun us," said Zuo, who only gave her last name for fear of retribution for speaking to AFP.

"Recruiters check Covid testing history going back several months during an interview."

China's strict control measures have led to stigma against not just recovered patients, but also their families, neighbours, friends and even frontline healthcare workers, said Jin Dongyan from the School of Biomedical Sciences at Hong Kong University.

"It is unscientific to think that people who were infected once will continue to carry the virus and be infectious long after recovering," Jin told AFP.

"Due to the lack of awareness, some fear that those who have been infected are more susceptible to being reinfected, but in reality, it's the opposite."

Zuo is now fighting a court battle with her employer, who has refused to pay her wages since she got sick, and who cites her disease history as a reason to bar her from returning to work.

Her employer, a service company named Shanghai Yuanmao BPO, declined to comment citing the pending court case.

- 'Treated like a virus' -

He Yuxiu is a Chinese social media influencer who goes by a pseudonym and was living in Ukraine until Russia invaded.

She fled the war and returned home, then found a job as a Russian-language teacher in north China's Hebei province, relieved to have left her troubles behind.

But when her school learned that she had been infected with Covid-19 while in Ukraine, she was fired.

"I never imagined I'd lose my first job for this reason," she said in a video posted on China's Twitter-like Weibo.

"Why should we be treated like a virus when we have defeated it?"

The stigma is widespread -- job ads for factory workers in Shanghai posted last month said applicants with a history of Covid-19 infection would be refused work.

The story of a young woman who lived in a toilet for weeks in Shanghai's Hongqiao railway station since she was unable to find work or return to her village due to the stigma of having been infected went viral last month.

And a theatre in the southern Chinese city of Foshan was forced to apologise after a notice banning recovered patients from entering sparked a public backlash.

- 'Little sheep people' -

Beijing's National Health Commission and human resources ministry last month banned employers from discriminating against recovered Covid patients, while Premier Li Keqiang has called for heavy punishments for those breaking the rules.

But job seekers and activists are sceptical.

Factories in Shanghai continued to refuse to hire recovered workers even after the city announced strict anti-discrimination rules, employment agent Wang Tao said, because they fear a mass outbreak or health inspections.

"Some factories give different excuses despite being short of workers," Wang added.

"But all those who are turned down have tested positive in the past."

AFP contacted eight manufacturers named by Chinese state media as having engaged in discriminatory practices -- including iPhone manufacturer Foxconn -- but they declined to comment.

"It's very difficult for workers to protect their rights since most employers offer different excuses and it is hard to prove that a labour law has been violated in these cases," said Aidan Chau, a researcher for the rights group China Labour Bulletin.

"It is important for labour unions to step up. But many small and medium factories don't have one."

Those who have tested positive are often referred to as "little sheep people" on Chinese social media. In Mandarin, the word for "positive" and "sheep" are pronounced the same way.

"It is very difficult for recovered patients to go back to our normal lives," said Zuo, the cleaner from Shanghai.

"No matter where we go, our infection history will follow us like a dark shadow."

(Y.Yildiz--BBZ)