Millions getting infected by COVID in China; official data reveals 17.56% population already affected

As hospitals and morgues in China are overwhelmed by millions of Covid cases, official data projected that millions have been infected since December 1, while the government has permitted the opening up of 'Internet Hospitals' for the affected people to seek medical help to reduce the overload on clinics. 

According to figures cited by officials on Tuesday this week, there were roughly 37 million new infections nationally, demonstrating for the first time the rise in cases across the nation.

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According to a leaked document allegedly from China's National Health Commission, the Covid rise between December 1 and December 20 affected 248 million individuals nationwide, or nearly 17.56% of the country's population, according to the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong.

After China abruptly modified the zero-covid policy earlier this month, the cases that have been identified as Omicron variations spread like wildfire throughout the nation.

Since the government eliminated the testing, it has become impossible to follow cases. Daily, lakhs of instances were reported by health officials in two Chinese cities.

Bo Tao, the head of the city's health commission, estimates that 490,000 to 530,000 people in Qingdao city in the eastern province of Shandong are becoming infected every day.

Bo said on Friday that the numbers were based on monitoring data and were expected to rise by 10 per cent on Saturday and Sunday. He added that the city was experiencing 'rapid transmission before the peak'. 

According to the Post, the city's health authority in the southern Guangdong province's Dongguan stated on Friday that between 250,000 and 300,000 individuals were becoming infected daily.

It said the growth rate based on computer modelling was rising, and 'many medical institutions and staff are facing unprecedented severe challenges and huge pressure'. 

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The commission added that despite having a fever or testing positive for Covid as of Thursday, 2,528 medical staff members worked in the city's public hospitals and welfare system.

ICUs in Beijing are still under strain due to the community spread of Omicron, which has increased in severe cases — the majority of whom are elderly — in a short period of time, according to a report from the state-run Global Times on Saturday.

Despite claims of an increase in arrivals at mortuaries and crematoriums, Beijing has only reported seven Covid-related deaths so far.

For the first time, the government permitted doctors to consult people with Covid-related symptoms online and to provide medications as the surge of cases overflowed hospitals. These services, which belong to a growing industry that provides online consultation, diagnosis, and treatment, are called "internet hospitals."

It was the first time internet hospitals could prescribe drugs to patients without seeing them in person. Before the policy shift, these facilities could only take follow-up appointments not first-time consultations, the Post reported. 

Meanwhile, despite concern over the rapid spreading of the virus cases, Beijing witnessed more and more people coming out to visit malls and dine-in restaurants. Traffic too picked up in the city on Friday. 

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. 

As the number of cases climb and many medical workers get infected, there have been reports of staff shortages in hospitals across the country, especially in major cities that are undergoing the infection peak, the Global Times quoted Wang as saying.

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(With inputs from PTI)