Amid COVID surge, China requisitions medical products

China is requisitioning the production of certain pharmaceutical companies, as millions of Chinese struggle to obtain basic medicines to treat themselves in the face of an unprecedented wave of COVID-19.

Since 2020, Beijing has imposed strict health measures, in the name of a so-called “zero COVID” policy which has made it possible to protect those most at risk and those who are poorly vaccinated.

For nearly three years, few Chinese people knew anyone around them who was sick with COVID.

But the power ended without notice most of the restrictions in early December amid growing exasperation among the population and a considerable impact on the economy.

Since then, COVID cases in China have exploded and a large part of the Chinese are left to fend for themselves, at a time when fever medication and self-tests are lacking in the face of exponential demand.

Amidst shortages, at least a dozen pharmaceutical companies have been ordered to “guarantee supply” of key drugs — a euphemism for requisitioning.

Wiz Biotech, a manufacturer of antigenic tests in Xiamen (east), indicated on its official account the “requisition” of its production by the local authorities. A representative of Wiz Biotech confirmed the measurement to AFP.

” The mess “

In Beijing, the authorities have sent additional staff to six kit manufacturers to help them “increase production”, according to a note from the municipality.

These decisions make it possible to “secure production, but the logistics are still far from being smooth […] in hospitals and pharmacies,” admits Zhou Zhicheng, head of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

“It’s a bit of a mess” because of “excessive purchases” and people who “order twice”, complains to AFP Mr. Zhou.

“My whole family is sick and I can’t buy medicine for the fever”, plague Yanyan, 32, an employee of Chengdu (southwest), a huge metropolis known for its pandas.

On Thursday, a dozen pharmacies contacted by AFP across China reported shortages of fever medication.

“We haven’t had any for a week or two […] I still have a few painkillers left, but very few. I have to leave you, I have customers waiting, ”says an employee who did not wish to give her name on the phone, in Yinchuan in Ningxia (North).

“I have just received 30 new vials (of paracetamol) and there are (already) only 13 left”, explains 2,000km away a pharmacy in Jilin (north-east), close to North Korea. “Each person can only buy one bottle,” says an employee, advising to “hurry up”.

It affects the master

In a tense situation, Zhuhai, a city bordering Macau (south), now limits the purchase of fever tablets to six per week and on presentation of an identity document.

Several metropolises including Nanjing (east) and Shenzhen (south) have taken similar measures.

Near Shanghai, the city of Hangzhou (east) calls on its inhabitants to buy drugs in a “rational” way. “Don’t stockpile blindly, leave the drugs to those who really need them. »

In Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory, there is also a raid on over-the-counter anti-influenza drugs, despite a largely stabilized and incomparable health situation with the rest of China.

“Last week, people bought regarding ten or twenty boxes of [paracétamol] to send them to neighboring mainland China,” a pharmacy employee told AFP who declined to disclose his name.

The biggest local brand now limits purchases of fever, cough and cold medicines.

In Taiwan, an island considered by China to be part of its territory, but administered in fact by its own government, the same frenzy is observed. Local authorities said Thursday they are considering limitations.

As COVID cases surge in China, hospitals in major cities are filling up with elderly patients.

In Shanghai, AFP saw the corridors of an overwhelmed emergency department on Thursday, with patients on stretchers and on life support.