IAN BIRREL: China's zero Covid policy has put the country into turmoil

The man’s note to his neighbours was polite. He stated that his father had died in their Shanghai flat from and ‘deeply apologised’ for any ‘trouble and fear’ that this might have caused their fellow residents.

He explained that he was doing his best to remove his father’s body ‘as soon as possible’, but overloaded officials were unable to collect the corpse for a funeral until after New Year.

He had tried to contact a nearby cemetery but got no response — hardly surprising as videos on social media show long lines of hearses queuing up to dispose of coffins holding Chinese pandemic victims. Since it is illegal to keep infected corpses at home, the man warned his neighbours that he planned ‘to find a clear empty plot in our building complex and cremate the remains myself’.

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