A chief doctor at one of Shanghai’s top hospitals is sounding the alarm over rising COVID-19 cases in China as he estimates up to 70% of the city’s population has been infected .
Chen Erzhen, vice president of Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai’s COVID expert advisory group, estimates that at least 70 percent of the megacity’s 25 million people have been infected. following the relaxation of the country’s “zero-COVID” policies.
“Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 percent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times higher than in April and May,” he told Dajiangdong. Studio, which belongs to the group. State-run People’s Daily.
As a result, he warned, hospitals in China are being stretched to their limits.
Erzhen said his hospital had seen an astonishing 1,600 emergency admissions every day – twice as many as before the restrictions were lifted – eight out of 10 of which were COVID patients.
“More than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day,” the doctor said, adding that half were at-risk patients over the age of 65.
Thought-provoking images filmed Monday at Zhongshang Hospital In Shanghai, it shows patients placed on beds outside the emergency department entrance as it struggled to cope with rising COVID-19 infections.
Other Chinese hospitals have even been forced to turn back ambulances and seriously ill patients.
Emergency rooms in small towns and cities outside of Beijing are teeming with sick peopleslumped on benches and lying on the ground for lack of beds.
Funeral homes are also on the brink. Several videos shared online show massive queues outside various Chinese living rooms as desperate families wait to book funeral appointments at the crematorium.
Relatives were waiting outside Yinheyuan Funeral Home in Guangzhou last Thursday told Radio Free Asia that they had to leave the body of their deceased family member at home to wait in line, as the funeral home was not reachable by phone.
Other footage from the Babaoshan Funeral Home in Beijing shows lines of cars marked “Jing Funeral” waiting outside an entrance.
The funeral home was forced to run cremations around the clock to cope with an increase in demand, Radio Free Asia reported.
China suddenly retreated its draconian “zero-COVID” checks on December 1. 7 – without formally abandoning the policy – following widespread protests.
The protests marked the largest show of public dissent against the ruling Communist Party in more than 30 years.
Under the ultra-strict rules, a single positive case could trigger widespread and prolonged lockdowns of entire cities.
Authorities have also erected massive barriers and fences around entire neighborhoods to prevent the spread of the virus.
Residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 could also be forced to go to a government-supervised quarantine facility.
With the reversal of zero-COVID and the spread of the Omicron variant, infections in China’s largest city, Shanghai, are expected to peak early this year.
Chinese health officials have suggested that other major cities like Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou have already seen their peak.
Chinese authorities have also warned that a wave could hit more rural areas as millions plan to return to their hometowns to celebrate the week-long Lunar New Year from January 1. 22.
Jiao Yahui, an official with the National Health Commission, said the party would be a “huge challenge” because people hadn’t gone home to celebrate since before the pandemic.
“What worries us the most is that in the past three years, no one has gone home for the Lunar New Year, but they finally can this year,” Jiao said.
As a result, there may be a wave of retaliation from city dwellers in the countryside to visit their relatives, so we are even more concerned about the rural epidemic.
More than a dozen countries have imposed COVID testing requirements on passengers arriving from China, including the United States, which will implement the rule from January 1. 5.
With post wires
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