Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert from Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Saturday that as the virus spread to the communities in Beijing, more elderly people and those with underlying diseases have been infected and that the capital city has witnessed an increase in the absolute number of severe cases
Doctors are expecting approximately 100 million COVID and one million deaths in China amid the recent rise in infection.
The surge in coronavirus cases in China is severely straining hospitals in Beijing and other major Chinese cities, reported NHK World.
Millions of people in China have been affected by Covid-19 since the ‘zero-covid policy’ was diluted on December 7.
The health authorities in Qingdao in Shandong Province estimated on Friday that 490,000 to 530,000 people per day have contracted the virus. Many Japanese companies are operating in the city.
Even the manufacturing hub of China, Dongguan in Guangdong Province on Friday reported 250,000 to 300,000 cases, according to NHK World. The cases pose an unprecedented challenge for medical workers.
A Beijing hospital official says about 500 patients daily are received at its emergency unit. That’s 2.5 times the usual. About 20 per cent of them have developed serious symptoms. Looking at the number of Covid cases, other hospitals in Beijing are setting up makeshift intensive care units and increasing the number of beds for patients with serious symptoms, reported NHK World.
Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert from Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Saturday that as the virus spread to the communities in Beijing, more elderly people and those with underlying diseases have been infected and that the capital city has witnessed an increase in the absolute number of severe cases.
Almost 250 million people in China may have been affected by Covid-19 in just 20 days after the zero-covid policy was diluted in the first week of the month, according to Radio Free Asia citing leaked government documents circulating on social media.
In the 20-minute meeting of China’s National Health Commission, as per the leaked document look like, 248 million people were infected with Covid-19 from December 1 to 20, or 17.65 per cent of China’s population.
As per Radio Free Asia, the data on covid cases released by government officials on December 20 is different from the reality as nearly 37 million were estimated.
“Based on mathematical calculations, we expect close to 100 million COVID cases in China, five million admissions and one million deaths, which is a huge number,” said Dr. Neeraj Kumar Gupta, HOD of Pulmonary Medicine at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on Saturday.
Gupta said that China is at the same stage where India was earlier but India is now well-experienced in fighting the virus.
“We faced the first wave, second wave of a much serious delta variant and the third wave of the Omicron variant which was not that serious but very infectious,” Gupta said.
He said that Chinese citizens have low immunity due to the country’s strict lockdown strategies.
China’s National Health Commission, which used to issue the country’s COVID-19 case figures on a daily basis, starting Sunday stopped publishing the update, according to The Global Times.
“China’s National Health Commission (NHC) will stop publishing daily COVID-19 case data from Sunday. Instead, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release COVID-related info for study and reference,” NHC said in a statement.
On the website, the National Health Commission on Saturday gave the Covid case figures of Friday. China mainland reported 4,128 new cases of confirmed infections and no new death in the country.
On December 23, 1,760 patients were released from the hospital after being cured and 28,865 people who had had close contact with infected patients were freed from medical observation. The number of serious cases increased by 99.