China races to install hospital beds as COVID surge sparks concern abroad

As the United States warned that Beijing’s unexpected choice to let the virus run free was a danger for the entire world, cities throughout China hurried to put in hospital beds and construct fever screening facilities on Tuesday.

Following demonstrations against restrictions that had mostly kept the virus at bay for three years but at substantial costs to society and the world’s second-largest economy, China last month abruptly began removing its strict “zero-COVID” policy of widespread lockdowns.

Now that the virus is sweeping through a nation of 1.4 billion people who have been protected for so long yet lack natural immunity, there is rising worry about potential fatalities, virus mutations, and the impact, once again, on the economy.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, stated on Monday that the virus outbreak was also a concern for China’s economy and, consequently, for global growth. “We know that any time the virus is spreading, that it is in the wild, that it has the potential to mutate and to pose a threat to people everywhere,” Price added.

Following two deaths attributed to COVID on Monday, the first deaths to be recorded in weeks, Beijing confirmed five COVID-related deaths on Tuesday.

Since the epidemic began in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, China has only reported a total of 5,242 COVID fatalities, a very low toll by international standards.

However, there are growing skepticisms that the data accurately reflect the entire impact of a disease ravaging cities after China dropped.

But since China dropped limits including most mandatory testing on December 7, there are growing concerns that the data do not accurately reflect the effect of a disease ravaging communities.

Since then, as many have stayed at home out of sickness or fear of contracting the disease, certain hospitals have been overrun, pharmacies have run out of medications, and the streets have been unusually silent.

According to some health experts, over 2 million people might die and 60% of China’s population, or 10% of the world’s population, could become infected in the upcoming months.

Security guards kept watch at the door of an authorized COVID-19 crematorium in Beijing’s capital, where Reuters journalists observed a long line of hearses and individuals carrying the deceased inside on Saturday. Reuters was unable to immediately determine whether the deaths were caused by COVID.