China has taken its Covid-tackling measures to new extremes, as video footage appears to show people being bolted into their homes, in a new effort to quell the spread of the virus.
Covid workers have been seen installing iron bolts on the floors and wires to barricade doors in the Hebei province.
The measure has been applied to people refusing to voluntarily hand over their keys to authorities so they can be locked in from the outside, according to independent publication Caixin Global.
Social media users have weighed on in the shocking scenes emanating from China, with some pointing out the safety risks involved.
People across China have been living under strict Covid rules.
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Mass testing has been carried out across Beijing.
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On Chinese social media website Weibo, a user commented: "I’m so angry.
"They really don't treat people like humans."
Qianan county officials have criticised localised residential communities for their "simplistic and radical means" of keeping Covid at bay.
The Qianan Pandemic Prevention and Control Office insisted they are "investigating and will modify the policy" on Chinese app WeChat.
The authority also say they are “looking into the possibility of installing alarms to replace current methods".
The reports come after lockdown measures were largely reimposed in Beijing, with scores of metro stations and bus routes shut.
Curbs on many public venues were in place on Wednesday, focusing efforts to avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions have been under strict lockdown for more than a month.
The central city of Zhengzhou earlier also announced restrictions, joining dozens of big population centres under some form of lockdown asChinaseeks to eliminate a virus believed to havefirstemerged in Wuhan in late 2019.
Xi Jinping has overseen tough restrictions in his country.
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But that uncompromising battle is undermining its growth and hurting international companies invested there, data shows, and has also fuelled rare public outbursts of discontent.
With dozens of new cases a day, Beijing is hoping mass testing will find and isolate the virus before it spreads.
Twelve of 16 city districts held the second of three rounds of tests this week.
The city of 22 million on Wednesday shut more than 60 subway stations, about 15 percent of the network, and 158 bus routes, service providers said, most in the Chaoyang district at the epicentre of Beijing's outbreak.
