As COVID grows unchecked, Chinese hospitals are “very busy”
The final large nation to treat COVID-19 as endemic was facing severe resource constraints on Wednesday, placing a great deal of burden on Chinese hospitals.
This month, China started to dismantle the strictest COVID regime in the world, which included lockdowns and extensive testing. This sudden change in policy has put China’s battered economy on track for a full reopening next year.
According to some international health experts, COVID is growing mainly unchecked and probably infecting millions of individuals every day as a result of the relaxation of regulations, which followed widespread protests against them.
Because of how quickly COVID regulations were abandoned, China’s already-fragile healthcare system is now overburdened, and other nations that have been “living with the virus” are now considering imposing travel restrictions on Chinese tourists.
China reported three additional COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, an increase from one on Monday. These figures are inconsistent with what other, much less populous nations experienced when they reopened.
The staff at Huaxi, a sizable hospital in Chengdu’s southwest, reported that COVID patients were keeping them exceedingly busy, as they have since limitations were loosened on December 7.
An ambulance driver who declined to give his name stated, “I’ve been doing this work for 30 years, and this is the busiest I’ve ever known it.
On Tuesday evening, there were lengthy lines outside and inside the hospital’s emergency room and at a nearby fever clinic. The majority of people who arrived in ambulances received oxygen to aid in breathing.
One member of the emergency department pharmacy staff noted that almost all of the patients had COVID.
She said that the hospital could only offer medications for symptoms like coughing due to a lack of supplies of COVID-specific medication.
The majority of recent patients, according to Zhang Yuhua, a representative of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, were elderly and extremely ill with underlying conditions. According to official media, she claimed that the number of people needing emergency care had climbed from roughly 100 to 450–550 each day.
images released by government-run China Daily displayed rows of primarily elderly patients receiving treatment from medical professionals wearing white hazmat suits in the hospital’s intensive care unit. Some of the patients were seen breathing through oxygen tubes.
