Officials in China have been rushing to build fever screening clinics and add hospital beds as the country’s fragile health system is inundated with a wave of Covid-19 infections.
Beijing’s decision to suddenly end its strict ‘zero-Covid’ policy after protests over its tough impacts on society has led to worry about impacts from letting the virus run free.
There is concern about the threat of a huge number of deaths, plus virus mutations and the economic impact, both at home and abroad. Even American officials voiced alarm this week.
“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,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday, adding that the virus outbreak was also a concern for China’s economy and, in turn, global growth.
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Doubt Over Deaths
Beijing reported five Covid-related deaths on Tuesday, following two on Monday which were the first fatalities reported in weeks.
In total, China has reported just 5,242 Covid deaths since the pandemic erupted in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, an extremely low toll by global standards.
But there are rising doubts that these statistics are capturing the full impact a disease ripping through cities after China dropped most mandatory testing on December 7.
Since then, some hospitals have been swamped, pharmacies emptied of medicines and streets have been unusually quiet as residents stay home, either sick or wary of catching the disease. Some reports say funeral parlours have been working around the clock with cars carrying bodies lined up outside crematoria in Beijing.
Some health experts estimate 60% of people in China – equivalent to 10% of the world population – could be infected over the coming months, and that more than 2 million could die.
Healthcare Strains
In the capital, security guards patrolled the entrance of a designated Covid-19 crematorium where journalists on Saturday saw a long line of hearses and workers in hazmat suits carrying the dead inside. Reuters could not immediately establish if the deaths were due to Covid.
Top health officials have softened their tone on the threat posed by the disease in recent weeks, a U-turn from previous messaging that the virus had to be eradicated to save lives even as the rest of the world opened up.
They have also been playing down the possibility that the now predominant Omicron strain could evolve to become more virulent.
“The probability of a sudden large mutation … is very low,” Zhang Wenhong, a prominent infectious disease specialist, told a forum on Sunday in comments reported by state media.
But there are mounting signs the virus is buffeting China’s health system. Cities are ramping up efforts to expand intensive care units and other treatment facilities for severe Covid cases, the state-run Global Times reported on Monday.
Authorities have also been racing to build so-called fever clinics, facilities where medical staff check patients’ symptoms and administer medicines. Often attached to hospitals, these clinics are common in mainland China and are designed to prevent the wider spread of contagious disease in healthcare settings.
In the past week, major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wenzhou announced they had added hundreds of fever clinics, according to government WeChat accounts and media reports.
A gym in Beijing’s Shijingshan district was converted into a fever clinic late last week with cubicles containing more than 150 beds covering a basketball court.
The spreading virus is expected to crimp China’s economy, expected to grow 3% this year, its worst performance in nearly half a century.
A survey by World Economics showed on Monday China’s business confidence fell in December to its lowest since January 2013.
China kept benchmark lending interest rates unchanged for the fourth consecutive month on Tuesday.
- Reuters with additional editing by Jim Pollard
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