15-12-2022 : After a week since China abruptly abandoned its stringent Zero-COVID policy, life in China has been disrupted due to an unimaginable rise in infections as authorities scrambled to manage the consequences of lack of preparations, infected doctors and medical workers, lack of ICU beds and reported shortages of fever medicines at medical stores.
The three years old Zero-COVID policy which was defended at every opportunity by Chinese authorities suddenly became useless, leaving people clueless as they did not get advance notice to prepare themselves mentally to deal with the new reality which should have eased the life in the absence of stringent COVID restrictions but actually created fear among the people of getting infected. People have resorted to panic-buying of ibuprofen, cold medicines, Covid self-testing kits and home remedies including lemons and electrolysed water amid reports of shortages. Beijing streets have been largely deserted as many residents opted to stay at home over fears of contracting a virus that, until recently, the government had portrayed as super lethal.
Long queues outside fever clinics and infectious diseases departments at hospitals have become a common sight in Beijing and other cities in recent days. National health authorities said that as of Wednesday they have opened over 47,000 fever clinics. China’s capital has turned a stadium into fever clinic. Cities across China are setting up more of these facilities as hospitals run into staff shortages due to the flood of Covid patients and doctors getting infected. The strain on Beijing’s medical resources worsened after the State Council, China’s cabinet last week that lifted some of the country’s toughest Covid curbs, including ending mass testing and allowing some infected people to quarantine at home rather than in centralized facilities. A 2020 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that China had 3.6 ICU beds for every 100,000 people, compared with 11.4 in Singapore and 25.8 in the U.S.
Several major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, have taken the lead in implementing the new policy. The infections are expected to further rise in coming days as the mass movement of people will peak going into the Lunar New Year holidays which start on Jan 22, after restrictions on domestic travel for the previous three years.
China’s major logistics companies are struggling to tackle a growing backlog of undelivered orders in Beijing, as a large number of deliverymen got infected and more people in the capital turn to online shopping amid a worsening Covid-19 outbreak.
The euphoria in China after the changes in COVID policy allowed people to live with the virus has quickly faded amid mounting concerns about surging infections because the population lacked “herd immunity” and has low vaccination rates among the elderly. The policy had been advocated by President Xi but last month sparked the most extensive protests under his 10-year presidency.
Meanwhile, WHO’s emergencies director Mike Ryan said on Wednesday that Covid-19 infections were exploding in China well before the government’s decision to abandon its strict zero-Covid policy. He also warned of the need to ramp up vaccinations in the world’s No 2 economy. State media reported that authorities have rolled out second booster shots for vulnerable groups, including the elderly and those with chronic diseases. According to state media, about 86.6 percent of those aged above 60 in China had completed a full course of vaccination (two shots), and 69 percent had received first booster shot (third shot); 66.4 percent of those aged over 80 had completed the full-course vaccination and 42.3 percent had a booster shot. According to reports, more than 2 million could die if China fully reopens with an under-vaccinated elderly population.
State media reported that some 50 people are critically or seriously ill in hospitals in Beijing, while infections are also rising in the cities of Wuhan and Chengdu as well as Hebei province, according to medical staff, social media posts and state press reports. But exact infection numbers are now impossible to track as testing has been made voluntary. The National Health Commission (NHC) said from Wednesday it would no longer report new asymptomatic COVID-19 infections citing the difficulties in accurately counting the total after the scrapping of mandatory mass testing, breaking with a practice it has held for most of the past three years.