Some 250 million people in China may have been infected with COVID-19 in the first 20 days of December, according to figures released by top Beijing health officials reported by US media.
According to the information published According to Bloomberg and the Financial Times, 37 million people caught the virus on Tuesday alone, contrary to official data counting 3,049 cases that day and 62,592 symptomatic infections in the first 20 days of this month.
Citing two sources involved in the case, the Financial Times reported that Sun Yang, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, presented the shocking figures at a meeting of China’s National Health Commission on Wednesday. (NHC).
It’s unclear how the NHC arrived at its approximation since Beijing no longer counts asymptomatic infections.
This month, China quickly dismantled key pillars of its zero-COVID strategy, scrapping instant lockdowns, long quarantines and travel restrictions in a sharp reversal of its signature lockdown strategy.
Cities across the country have struggled to cope with surging infections that have emptied pharmacy shelves, filled hospital wards and appeared to cause backlogs at crematoriums and funeral homes.
A health worker takes a swab sample from a woman to test for COVID-19 in Jing’an district in Shanghai, China on December 23, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP)
But the end of strict testing mandates has made case numbers virtually impossible to track, while authorities have tightened the medical definition of a COVID death in a move that experts say will suppress the number of deaths attributable to the virus. virus.
In a rare and quickly censored acknowledgment that the country’s wave of infections is not reflected in official statistics, a top health official said on Friday that half a million people in the Chinese city of Qingdao are infected every day.
A media outlet run by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao reported that the municipal health chief said the eastern city was seeing “between 490,000 and 530,000” new cases a day.
The coastal city of around 10 million was ‘in a period of rapid transmission before an imminent peak’, Bo Tao was quoted as saying, adding that the infection rate would accelerate another 10% over the weekend. .
The report was shared by several other news outlets but appears to have been edited Saturday morning to remove the numbers from the case.
China’s National Health Commission said on Saturday that 4,103 new household infections had been recorded nationwide the previous day, with no new deaths.
In Shandong, the province where Qingdao is located, authorities have officially registered only 31 new domestic cases.
The frozen coast of Qingdao, in eastern China’s Shandong province, on December 17, 2022. (AFP)
The Chinese government keeps a tight leash on the country’s media, with legions of online censors on hand to weed out content deemed politically sensitive.
Most government publications downplayed the severity of the country’s wave, instead describing the policy reversal as logical and controlled.
But some outlets have hinted at drug shortages and hospitals under pressure, although estimates of the true number of cases remain scarce.
The government of eastern Jiangxi province said in a social media post on Friday that 80% of its population – the equivalent of around 36 million people – would be infected by March.
More than 18,000 COVID patients were admitted to major medical facilities across the province in the two weeks to Thursday, including nearly 500 serious cases but no deaths, the statement said.
‘No historical precedent’
There were signs that medical resources remained under pressure at the start of the weekend, as some regional health officials warned the worst was yet to come.
The manufacturing center in southern Dongguan said on Friday that epidemic modeling indicated up to 300,000 new infections per day, adding that the rate was “accelerating faster and faster”.
“Many medical resources and personnel are under severe challenges and enormous pressure without historical precedent,” read a statement released by the health bureau of the city of 10.5 million.
People wait for medical treatment at the fever clinic of Tongren Hospital in the Changning district of Shanghai, China, on December 23, 2022. (Hector Retamal/AFP)
The office is also releasing a video showing patients hooked up to IV drips queuing outside a clinic and a doctor sleeping on his desk after working late into the night for several days in a row.
A senior health official in Hainan said on Friday the island province would hit a peak in infections “very soon”, while in the eastern megacity of Shanghai, more than 40,000 patients have been treated for “fevers”, it said. the public People’s Daily reported on Saturday.
Chongqing authorities have launched a campaign to vaccinate residents with inhalable vaccines as the central megacity grapples with a major outbreak.
AFP journalists in the city of 32 million people this week witnessed hospitals overflowing with mostly elderly COVID-positive patients and dozens of bodies being unloaded from crematoriums.
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