A medical worker in a protective suit collects a swab sample from a man at a nucleic acid testing site as Covid-19 outbreaks continue in Shanghai, China, December 12, 2022. Picture: Reuters/Aly Song
CHINESE hospitals scrambled to contain emerging outbreaks across the country on Monday as authorities rolled back more than two years of Covid-19 controls.
After widespread protests against the government's strict "zero-Covid" policies, authorities last week announced a dramatic loosening of requirements for testing, digital health passes and tracking and quarantines. In the days since, hospitals have reported a surge in patients while hundreds of medical staff have contracted the virus.
Beijing municipal officials said at a briefing on Monday that 22,000 patients visited fever clinics the day before, 16 times the daily average a week ago.
"Hospitals bore the brunt of zero-Covid, and are now overwhelmed by an unprecedented outbreak," said Yan, an eye surgeon in Beijing who disclosed only her surname because she was not authorised to speak to media. More than half of the staff in her hospital had tested positive in the past week.
"Patients who visit the fever clinic have grown several times compared with last week, and it's likely to go on for weeks or even months more," she said.
A surge in cases is likely to overwhelm China's health-care system which has been focused for the last three years on contact tracing and quarantines rather than building up capacity for Covid outbreaks. China has 4.5 intensive care unit beds for every 100,000 people, according to government data, and its latest ambition to double its ICU capacity by the end of December is proving to be harder to achieve than expected.
The National Health Commission on Sunday launched an initiative to ensure major county-level hospitals are stocked up on medical supplies and intensive care unit equipment. Hospitals have been ordered to expand their staff by 20 to 30 percent and establish an infectious diseases department by the end of December.
The commission said on Friday that it would ensure 90 percent of rural hospitals have fever clinics while temporary quarantine centres, known as fangcang, will be converted into hospitals.
China logged 8,838 positive tests on Sunday, a figure that residents said does not reflect the true scope of infections since centralized testing, the only way new infections were identified, has been removed. A contact tracing app monitoring residents movements will cease to function as of Tuesday and all user data is to be deleted.
Cities pleaded with residents not to call emergency services if their symptoms were not serious while community and rural clinics complained they were short staffed, according to local media reports. Panicked residents are stockpiling antigen tests and medication.
Karen Bai, 36, who lives in Shijiazhuang in Hebei province has had a fever for three days but has not been able to get a hold of any at-home tests. Suffering from a blood disease, she is immuno-compromised and her doctor has advised her to stay away from hospitals.
"So many patients have Covid but they don't know it," she said. "Everyone has been saying life is going to return to normal, but to me it's gone from bad to worse."
China's pursuit of zero-Covid has resulted in a low level of natural immunity among the public, leaving the population vulnerable. Authorities are especially focused on protecting the elderly, who have lower vaccination rates and are the target of a current vaccine drive. Zhang Wenhong, a Shanghai-based infectious diseases expert, advised elderly residents to refrain from group activities like dancing in public squares or playing mah-jongg for at least one month.
Caixin reported earlier this month that China aims to vaccinate 90 percent of those aged 80 and above with at least the first shot, but officials have refrained from announcing a specific target given hesitancy among the elderly to get inoculated. Just 40 percent of Chinese older than 80 have received a booster shot, despite months of campaigning and gift-giving to encourage uptake.
Last week, government adviser Feng Zijian, a former official with the National Health Commission, predicted 60 percent of the population could be infected in the first wave of infections. Authorities expect an upsurge in cases around Lunar New Year in late January.
China's Covid cases could peak in a month but it is "more complicated" to predict when the outbreak will end, experts have said.
"In the short run, there will be a massive demand for ICU resources as severe case rise," Zhang Ming, the deputy head of the intensive care unit at Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai, told financial news outlet Yicai, adding that bigger hospitals in bigger cities tend to be more prepared, but they "cannot speak for the situation in general."
Amid fear of the virus, after more than two years of official media warning of its dangers, misinformation has spread with residents buying up canned peaches after rumors that it would prevent contagion and experts weighing in on whether better-looking patients are less likely to contract it.
Still, residents say they welcome the opening. "It's a risk worth taking," said Yan, the doctor in Beijing. "If the lockdown had gone on, more people would have died from poverty and starvation even if they stayed covid-free."
- THE WASHINGTON POST