housands of elderly people in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been hit hard by a lockdown that has now dragged on for five weeks.

Since the outbreak began in early March, more than 500,000 people have tested positive for the virus. Nearly 10,000 of those people have been aged over 80.

China's Covid rules demand that anyone who is infected, or a close contact, must be sent to a state-run quarantine centre.

It is not uncommon for hundreds of people to be put together in such centres. Images shared on social media have showed unsanitary conditions, with clogged up toilets and overflowing rubbish bins.

One woman in Shanghai told the BBC that her 90-year-old grandmother who is in one such centre, is struggling with unsanitary conditions, unable to sleep properly, and has largely been left to fend for herself.

She now fears her 91-year-old grandfather, who has also tested positive, will also be dragged to a centre - which she says will effectively be a death sentence.

'She wouldn't [be able to] survive at all'

Her grandmother was the first to fall sick, said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

The lady tested positive on 17 April - despite having never left the house since the outbreak began. The past two weeks have been a real struggle.

A previous illness has left the 90-year-old with one numb leg, making walking difficult. The facility's toilet block is more than 100m from her bed, so she has been trying to avoid drinking too much water to spare herself a trip to the bathroom.

Rest is also fleeting in the strained, communal conditions. Fluorescent lights are on 24 hours a day and so she's been unable to sleep properly, her granddaughter says.

"Luckily there's a warm-hearted [woman] in the quarantine centre. She accompanies my grandma to the toilet and assists her with eating."

"If my grandma was there alone, she wouldn't [be able to] survive at all."

She added that her grandmother hasn't received any medical drugs or "proper treatment" - only supplies of traditional Chinese medicine which medical experts say have no documented effect in treating or relieving Covid symptoms.

However, desperate to recover and leave the centre, her grandmother has taken whatever she has been given. This, her granddaughter claims, has led to various medical conditions, including diarrhoea.

She's desperate to get her grandmother out, or at least to a hospital where she can be properly looked after. But community officials insist they will not let her out until she tests negative.

"When I called her, she repeated 'I want to go home. I want to go home soon," she said. "She's also worried about my grandpa who's at home."

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