The wave of COVID-19 is “spreading rapidly” in China, a government adviser epidemiologist warned on Sunday, following the government’s decision to abandon its “zero COVID” strategy.
• Read also: China’s abandonment of “zero COVID” hailed by international economic institutions
• Read also: Negotiations on a global pandemic agreement will begin in February 2023
• Read also: COVID-19: China announces general relaxation of health rules
Chinese health authorities on Wednesday announced a general easing of health restrictions, after angry protests, and also in hopes of reviving the world’s second-largest economy, suffocated by restrictions.
Shops and restaurants in Beijing were deserted on Sunday as the country awaits a spike in infections with the end of routine and large-scale PCR testing, the option of home isolation for mild and asymptomatic cases, and a remedy more limited to confinements.
“Currently, the epidemic in China (…) is spreading rapidly, and under such circumstances, no matter how strong the prevention and control, it will be difficult to completely cut off the chain of transmission” of the virus, said Zhong, one of the government’s top advisers since the start of the pandemic, warned in an interview with state media published on Sunday.
“Current Omicron subvariants…are highly contagious…one person can transmit to 22 people,” he added.
The country faces a surge of cases that it is ill-prepared to handle, with millions of elderly people still not fully vaccinated and underfunded hospitals that lack the capacity to accommodate large numbers of patients.
The country has one intensive care unit bed for every 10,000 people, Jiao Yahui, director of the medical affairs department of the national health commission, warned Friday.
She announced that 106,000 doctors and 177,700 nurses would be redirected to intensive care units to deal with the new wave of cases, but did not specify how other hospital sectors would organize themselves.
On Sunday, long queues formed outside pharmacies in Beijing as residents rushed to stock up on fever medication and antigen test kits. Some told AFP they were ordering medicine from pharmacies in nearby towns.
“I’m afraid to go out,” said Liu Cheng, a mother of two living in central Beijing, explaining that “many” of her friends with symptoms or tested positive had not reported.
The number of reported cases in China has fallen sharply following the government’s decision to scrap mass testing.