Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
AsiaWire
This is the moment Chinese drone police enforcing a citywide lockdown find a group of people hiding on a roof and gambling together amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Officers in Maojian District in the city of Shiyan, which is in Central China’s Hubei Province where the outbreak began, found the fearless group of neighbours playing the popular tile-based game known as mahjong on 18th February.
In the video, which shows eerily dystopian scenes of unmanned drones hovering through the air above empty streets, a policeman disperses the group with a loudhailer.
He repeats the phrase: “Do not gather! Do not gather!” while enforcing a citywide lockdown which has been in place for more than a month.
The same footage also shows officers reminding residents that they are only allowed outdoors if they are carrying an exit permit.
The document restricts every household to sending just one family member to buy necessities once a day.
Large gatherings such as at sporting events or weddings have been outlawed during the outbreak.
Gambling is also forbidden as the group activity may cause accidental transmission of COVID-19.
The entire province of Hubei, where nearly 60 million people live, has been on full lockdown since 24th January, with no end in sight to the large-scale travel restrictions aimed at containing the outbreak.
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