The death of a 3-year-old boy after a suspected gas leak in a gated housing complex in northwest China has sparked a new wave of outrage over the country’s strict zero-Covid policy.   

  The boy’s father claimed in a social media post that Covid workers tried to prevent him from leaving their compound in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, to seek treatment for his child – causing a delay which he believes proved fatal.   

  A social media post by the father on Wednesday about his son’s death was met with an outpouring of public outrage and grief, with several related hashtags garnering hundreds of millions of views the next day on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.   

  “Three years of pandemic was his whole life,” read one popular comment.   

  It’s the latest tragedy to spark a growing backlash against China’s relentless zero-Covid policy, which continues to disrupt daily life with relentless lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing orders, even as the rest of the world moves on from the pandemic.   

  Many similar cases involved people who died after being denied immediate access to emergency medical care during lockdowns – despite the insistence of Chinese officials, including leader Xi Jinping, that the country’s Covid policies “put people and their lives in priority”.   

  Large parts of Lanzhou, including the neighborhood where the boy’s family lives, have been cordoned off since early October.   

  The boy’s father said his wife and child fell ill around noon on Tuesday, showing signs of gas poisoning.  The mother’s condition improved after the father administered CPR, but the boy fell into a coma, according to the man’s social media post.   

  The father said he made several attempts to call both an ambulance and the police, but was unsuccessful.  He said he then went to seek help from Covid workers who were enforcing a lockdown at their compound, but was rebuffed and told to seek help from officials in his community or continue to call an ambulance himself.   

  He said workers asked him to show a negative Covid test result, but he could not do so as no tests had been carried out at the compound in the previous 10 days.   

  He became desperate and eventually brought his son outside, where a “kind-hearted” resident called a taxi to take them to the hospital, he wrote.   

  However, it was too late when they arrived and doctors were unable to save his son.   

  “My child could have been saved if he had been taken to the hospital earlier,” she wrote.   

  According to online maps, the hospital is just 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the boy’s home – a 10-minute drive.   

  The father claimed in his social media post that the police did not show up until after he had taken his son to the hospital.  However, local police said in a statement late Tuesday that they immediately rushed to the scene after receiving a call for help from the public and helped send two people, including the child, to the hospital 14 minutes later.   

  The police statement said the child died of carbon monoxide poisoning and the mother remained in hospital in a stable condition – but did not say whether the quarantine measures delayed their treatment.   

  CNN reached out to both Lanzhou officials and the boy’s father for comment.  The father did not answer.   

  On Thursday, Lanzhou authorities issued a statement expressing sadness over the child’s death and condolences to his family.  They vowed to “severely deal” with officials and task forces who failed to facilitate the boy’s timely rescue.   

  “We have learned a painful lesson from this incident … and will put people and their lives first in our work going forward,” the statement said.   

  The boy’s death also fueled the anger of local residents.  Videos circulating on social media show residents taking to the streets to demand answers from the authorities.   

  One shows a woman yelling at officials wrapped head to toe in hazmat suits.  “Ask your leader to come here and tell us what happened today,” he shouts.  In another, a man chants, “Give me back my freedom!”   

  Other videos show several buses containing SWAT officers arriving at the scene.   

  One shows lines of officers in hazmat suits walking down the street.  Several others show residents in confrontation with uniformed police officers holding shields and wearing helmets and masks.   

  CNN cannot independently verify the footage, but a resident who lives nearby confirmed to CNN that he saw the police SWAT team enter.   

  “They shouted ‘one, two, one’ (as they marched down the street) so loudly it could be heard from 500 meters away,” the resident said.   

  He lamented Lanzhou’s “excessive epidemic prevention and lockdowns” and what he said was increasingly strict censorship.   

  “Now, even knowing the truth has become an extravagant hope,” he said.  “Who knows how many similar incidents have occurred across the country?”   

  In his social media post, the father said he was approached by someone claiming to work for an “urban organization” and offered 100,000 yuan (about $14,000) on the condition that he sign an agreement not to seek accountability from the authorities. .   

  “I didn’t sign it.  All I want is an explanation (for my son’s death),” he wrote.  “I want (them) to tell me straight up why they wouldn’t let me go at that moment?”   

  The father’s posts on Weibo and Baidu, another online site, recounting the incident disappeared late Wednesday night.