After abruptly ending its ‘zero Covid’ policy in early December, China is now facing a rebound in infections from the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen. Although the end of mass testing makes it impossible to know exactly how many people are infected, there are increasing reports of overwhelmed hospitals and overwhelmed crematoria.
“Now I have a fever.” “On the third day of returning to the office, I have tested positive for Covid-19.” Since the sudden abandonment of the ‘zero Covid’ policy in China on December 7th, thousands of testimonials like these have been posted on social media, usually accompanied by photos of positive self-analysis. With a low immune population and limited vaccination among vulnerable people, the contagious Omicron variant has sparked a wave of mass infections across the country.
Just a few weeks ago the discovery of a handful of Covid-19 cases led to the containment of entire neighborhoods or even cities. However, the authorities made the decision to “learn to live with the virus” and have put an end to the mandatory check-ups that the population had to undergo every two or three days. For this reason, reliable data is not available and it is impossible to have an exact idea of the scope of the situation.
Beijing especially affected
But the capital, Beijing, with its 22 million inhabitants, seems especially affected by this spike in infections. As early as December 14, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan admitted that infections were “increasing rapidly.” At the same time, some companies reported that 90% of their staff were “unwell”.
According to a survey carried out among 3,000 expatriates in Beijing, published on December 15 by ‘The Beijinger’ magazine and broadcast by ‘Le Monde’ newspaper, 9% of those surveyed had contracted Covid-19 before December 1, 58% since that date and only 33% had not been infected. These are “plausible” figures, according to the newspaper.
The other metropolises of the country do not seem to be spared. In Shanghai and Guangzhou, local authorities announced that all schools in the city will return to distance learning starting Monday, contrary to national directives.
And this deterioration of the situation is giving rise to a paradox: after weeks of protests against the repeated confinements, some residents now prefer to stay at home for fear of being contaminated. In Guangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan, the streets are almost deserted. “Now we have freedom of movement,” an octogenarian told the AFP news agency, who said he was not “very worried” about the Omicron variant, before adding: “But we must not relax too much and give too much freedom right away.” Because if you die, where’s the freedom, right?”
Shanghai is turning into the Ghost Town Beijing has already been for a week. Everybody seems either sick or staying in to avoid Covid.
This is a usually busy shopping street today: pic.twitter.com/PQciM2XEjc
—Christian Petersen-Clausen (@chris__pc) December 19, 2022
Another signal illustrates the moral state of the population, divided between relief and concern. Sales of self-diagnostics have skyrocketed in pharmacies, as have those of medicines for fevers, colds and even traditional remedies. A desire to stock up on prevention for some, and cure for others.
Fears increase especially in the case of the elderly, poorly vaccinated and therefore especially vulnerable. Several nursing homes across the country announced that they are gradually isolating themselves from the outside world, making their staff sleep in the facilities and allowing only food and merchandise to protect their patients.
Saturated hospitals
In some hospitals, doctors warn that the situation is “out of control”. “Our hospital is overflowing with patients. Every day between 700 and 800 people arrive with fever,” Li, a doctor at a hospital in Sichuan province, told Reuters. “We have run out of fever and cold medicine, we are waiting for our suppliers to deliver it to us. Some nurses have tested positive. There are no special protection measures for hospital staff.”
“Last night I was overwhelmed with almost 200 patients with symptoms of Covid-19,” said a nurse at a Chengdu hospital.
On social networks, many photos and videos show queues of several hours before being served, while non-urgent operations had to be canceled in several establishments.
Another day with more videos on Chinese social media of overcrowded hospitals and patients waiting at fever clinics. There are those saying it’s all because China opened up too fast. Others are happy that lockdowns are over: “At least you now have the freedom to go to the hospital!” pic.twitter.com/qpAfSuXbsu
—Manya Koetse (@manyapan) December 16, 2022
“We work 24 hours a day”
The crematoriums also seem to be overcrowded. In the largest crematorium in Beijing, in Babaoshan, “we work 24 hours a day. We can’t keep up,” an employee told the US outlet ‘Wall Street Journal’ on condition of anonymity, estimating that some 200 corpses arrive every day, compared to the about 30 regulars.
A situation similar to that of other cities in the country. “Of course we are busy, what place isn’t at the moment?” said an employee at a crematorium in Baoding, near Beijing. In Chongqing, 1,300 km away, a city-province with a population of more than 30 million, another entity told the AFP agency that it had no more space to store corpses. The number of corpses in recent days is “much higher than before,” he exhorted.
Authorities stay the course
China seems to be paying for the low immunity of its population: few people have been subjected to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. Only 40% of people over 80 years of age are fully vaccinated and the efficacy of the administered vaccines -100% locally produced- is questionable.
But the Chinese authorities remain the course of their new health policy. Officially, only six deaths related to Covid-19 have been recorded since the beginning of December and the lifting of sanitary restrictions. This low figure is explained, above all, by a change in the methodology for recording cases. The authorities announced on Tuesday, December 21, that from now on, only people who died directly from respiratory failure related to Covid-19 would be included in the statistics.
This change means “many deaths will not be registered” as due to Covid, said Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease expert based in Singapore. “It’s hard to say that this is not politically motivated,” added health expert Yanzhong Huang of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank.
For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO), which had initially welcomed the end of China’s ‘zero Covid’ policy, is now taking a 180-degree turn. “The WHO is very concerned about the evolution of the situation in China,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the institution, acknowledged on Wednesday. According to projections by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a US institute, lifting health restrictions could cause the deaths of more than a million people by 2023.
*Adapted from its original French version
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