Shocking video shows moment Chinese morgue workers open body bag and find patient is alive

The incident happened at a morgue in Putuo District on Sunday.

The city's population of 25 million people are currently in lockdown as authorities battle another wave of Covid-19.

The video shows two staff from a nursing home and one mortuary worker loading a body bag into the back of a hearse.

Moments later they take it out, open up the bag and remove a cover from the face of the person inside.

“He's alive!” one person exclaims. “He's alive, I saw it, he's alive. Don't cover him any more.”

The body bag was then removed from the hearse and wheeled back into the nursing home.

The person filming the unfolding scenes is overheard calling the incident a “disgrace for human life”, before adding: “Now they're discussing what to do. Get them out of there; what else can you do? What you're doing is immoral.”

“They're not even dead, and they're put in a van to go to the funeral home.”

In a statement, authorities said that the man, who is receiving treatment in hospital, is in a stable condition.

“On the afternoon of May 1, reports were posted online that a so-called dead body being transferred from the Shanghai New Long March Care Home was found to show signs of life,” a statement read.

“Putuo district government launched an immediate investigation and sent the elderly man to receive treatment in hospital, where he is currently stable.”

The doctor who signed the man’s death certificate has been fired as well as four senior officials in the Putuo government.