Beijing
\nChina\u2019s nursing homes are fighting an uphill battle to keep their elderly residents safe as a wave of Covid-19 infections sweeps the country following a relaxation of the government\u2019s zero-tolerance virus policy.
\nFacilities are locking themselves off from the outside world with staff sleeping on-site, while struggling to get their hands on drugs.
\nAuthorities have warned of rapidly growing caseloads, and industry ministry official Zhou Jian said on Wednesday that the country was \u201cmaking all-out efforts to ramp up the production of key medicines\u201d.
\nExperts fear the country is ill-equipped to manage the \u201cexit wave\u201d of infections as it presses ahead with the reopening, with millions of vulnerable elderly people still not fully vaccinated.
\nAnd eldercare facilities have now been left to fend for themselves as society reopens, the manager of one privately run Beijing home said.
\n\u201cWe are fully sealed off,\u201d the manager, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP. Only food and supplies are allowed in \u2014 no one is allowed to enter or leave.
\nHe said the home had ordered medical supplies \u201cat a high price\u201d, but they had not arrived yet after a week, with the city\u2019s logistics network battered by infections among delivery workers.
\n\u201cCouriers and delivery personnel are almost all Covid positive,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if you disinfect or throw away all the outer packaging, plus the plastic packaging, you can\u2019t spray disinfectant on all the food that comes in.\u201d
\nMany Chinese eldercare facilities have already been locked down for weeks following local government directives, with Yuecheng Senior Home in Beijing saying last week it had already been sealed off for nearly 60 days.
\nIn Shanghai, the Xiangfu Nursing Home said this week it would continue \u201cclosed management\u201d, forcing all employees to sleep on site and giving staff nucleic acid tests every day.
\n\u201cAs society optimises prevention and control policies, our home should in particular maintain high vigilance,\u201d the home said in its statement.
\nHospitals under pressure
\nVisits to hospital fever clinics surged in the days following China\u2019s lifting of restrictions last week, though the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the virus was already spreading widely in the country as \u201cthe control measures in themselves were not stopping the disease\u201d.
\nThe toll of the abrupt shift away from zero-Covid is still unfolding, with multiple funeral homes in the capital telling media they experienced a recent surge in demand.
\nHealth authorities have reported no deaths from Covid-19 in the past week, but have admitted that official figures no longer capture the full picture of domestic infections now that mass testing requirements have been dropped.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had hundreds of patients, with a number of patients coming from nursing homes and in their 90s,\u201d though there appeared to be few severe cases, one nurse at a Beijing hospital, who asked to remain anonymous, told media.
\nThe nurse, who had recently caught Covid himself and returned to work after just three days, said more than half of his colleagues had been infected over the past few days.
\nDeserted streets
\nStreets in major Chinese cities were eerily quiet on Sunday as people stayed home to protect themselves from a surge in Covid-19 cases.
\nChina is in the first of an expected three waves of Covid cases this winter, according to the country\u2019s chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou. Further waves will come as people follow the tradition of returning en masse to their home areas for the Lunar New Year holiday next month, he said.
\nIn Beijing, the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has already hit services from catering to parcel deliveries. Funeral homes and crematoriums across the city of 22 million are also struggling to keep up with demand amid staff shortages as workers and drivers call in sick.
\nAt Beijing\u2019s largest funeral parlour in Babaoshan, also known for handling the bodies of top Chinese officials and leaders, several hearses a minute could be seen entering on Sunday, while the parking area for private cars was also full.
\n\u201cRight now it is difficult to book a hearse so many relatives transport the body with their own vehicles,\u201d said an employee on condition of anonymity.
\nSmoke billowed out of crematoriums, where groups of people were gathered to collect the ashes of the deceased. It was not immediately clear to what extent a rise in Covid-related deaths was responsible.
\nSocial media posts also showed empty subways in the city of Xian in China\u2019s northwest, while in Shanghai, the country\u2019s commercial hub, there was none of the usual bustle in the run-up to the New Year.
\n\u201cFestive vibes are missing,\u201d said a resident who gave her name as Alice.
\nIn Chengdu, streets were deserted but food delivery times were improving, said a resident surnamed Zhang, after services began to adapt to the recent surge in cases.
\nGetting hold of antigen test kits was still difficult, however, she said, explaining that she had been told the kits she ordered recently had been diverted to hospitals.
\nIn Shanghai, authorities said schools should move most classes online from Monday, and in nearby Hangzhou, most school grades were encouraged to finish the winter semester early.
\nIn Guangzhou, those already doing online classes as well as pre-schoolers should not prepare for a return to school, said the education bureau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beijing China\u2019s nursing homes are fighting an uphill battle to keep their elderly residents safe as a wave of Covid-19 infections sweeps the country following a relaxation of the government\u2019s zero-tolerance virus policy. Facilities are locking themselves off from the outside world with staff sleeping on-site, while struggling to get their hands on drugs. Authorities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-302001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n