Tibetans in the capital city of Lhasa have been in lockdown for 50 days and there is no end in sight, prompting some to ask if these lockdowns have anything to do with Covid-19 at all.

According to the news, Tibet is in the middle of an epidemic where the virus is spreading and the government feel the need to do everything they can to ‘protect’ the people, even if that means cramming thousands of strangers onto buses and taking them to over-crowded facilities with little air circulation and almost no sanitation measures – which seems to be the exact opposite of what is needed to keep communicable viruses from spreading, which is why the numbers of infected individuals is going up.

Since China has implemented the lockdowns, the situation has gotten worse, not better, perhaps because people are exposed to the disease from the complete strangers that they are forced to live with, eat with, sleep beside, and share a toilet with.

Tibetans have gone online to Chinese social media platforms begging for access to adequate hygiene, food and medical care, but their cries are falling on deaf ears. Tibetans are monitored more heavily and face harsher repercussions than other places, because of the political volatility of the area.

BTJ has been working in Tibet for more than 20 years and there are currently several BTJ missionaries in the region preaching the Gospel amid the turmoil, but the situation in Lhasa continues to deteriorate.

Photos of the facilities above are screenshots taken from YouTube.