After the relaxation of China’s strict zero-Covid strategy, many hospitals are dealing with an onslaught of infected people. In metropolises like Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu or Shijiazhuang, hospitals experienced “the first shock of a gigantic wave of infections and a shortage of health workers,” wrote the renowned business magazine Caixin on Monday and spoke of “Covid chaos”. Emergency rooms are overcrowded. People seeking help have to wait up to five or six hours in long queues – sometimes with wintry temperatures.
In a radical U-turn, the government largely scrapped its rigorous zero-Covid strategy last Wednesday. Lockdowns have been ended, the strict obligation to test and forced quarantine or isolation of contacts has been largely relaxed. Even before that, there had been signs that the number of infected people was increasing noticeably and that the testing capacities and official tracking of the infections had long since been unable to keep up.
“The current omicron mutation is highly contagious,” leading Chinese epidemiologist and government adviser Zhong Nanshan explained the government’s 180-degree turnaround in an interview. The epidemic is currently spreading very quickly. “Under such circumstances, it is difficult to completely break the chains of transmission – no matter how strong the prevention and control.”
The surprising change of course caught many hospitals largely unprepared. A big problem is separating Covid cases from other patients and protecting your own staff. Infected people often infect doctors and other employees. “Our hospital follows strict protective measures every day, but with the increase in patients, the infection rate among our medical staff is high,” the newspaper quoted as saying Zhongguo Shibao a doctor at a hospital in the southern province of Guangdong. The previous strict precautionary protocol is already being partially relaxed.
Doctors and nurses themselves in isolation, fear of further escalation
A doctor in Beijing reported that she had to continue working despite her own infection. The definition of “contact person” is also broader than before. Where it is still strictly applied, large parts of the doctors and nurses are not on duty because they are infected themselves or are in isolation as close contacts. Cold and fever medication and rapid tests are sold out in many pharmacies. Many shops and restaurants are closed in Beijing, for example. People don’t dare to go outside for fear of infection. The otherwise congested streets of the capital seemed empty on Monday.
Experts fear that the corona wave will now hit older people in particular, many of whom are not sufficiently vaccinated in China for fear of side effects. Only 40 percent of people older than 80 have received a booster shot so far. According to the party-affiliated newspaper, leading epidemiologists said Global Timesthat the wave of infections will peak within a month. Since there is no longer any testing and hardly any reports, the official case numbers no longer reflect what is happening.