The lifting of restrictions means COVID is spreading largely unchecked
\n Beijing
\nChinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surging COVID-19 wave drained resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts over official data prompted some countries to consider new travel rules on Chinese visitors.
\nIn an abrupt change of policy, China this month began dismantling the world\u2019s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a complete re-opening next year.
\nThe lifting of restrictions, which came after widespread protests against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.
\nThe speed at which China, the last major country in the world moving towards treating the virus as endemic, has scrapped COVID rules has left its fragile health system overwhelmed.
\nChina reported three new COVID-related deaths for Tuesday, up from one for Monday – numbers that are inconsistent with what funeral parlours are reporting, as well as with the experience of much less populous countries after they re-opened.
\nStaff at Huaxi, a big hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu, said they were \u201cextremely busy\u201d with COVID patients.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this job for 30 years and this is the busiest I have ever known it,\u201d said one ambulance driver outside the hospital who declined to be identified.
\nThere were long queues inside and outside the hospital\u2019s emergency department and at an adjacent fever clinic on Tuesday evening. Most of those arriving in ambulances were given oxygen to help with their breathing.
\n\u201cAlmost all of the patients have COVID,\u201d one emergency department pharmacy staff member said.
\nThe hospital has no stocks of COVID-specific medicine and can only provide drugs for symptoms such as coughing, she said.
\nCar parks around the Dongjiao funeral home, one of the biggest in Chengdu, were full. Funeral processions were constant as smoke billowed from the crematorium.
\n\u201cWe have to do this about 200 times a day now,\u201d said one funeral worker. \u201cWe are so busy we don\u2019t even have time to eat. This has been the case since the opening up. Before it was around 30-50 a day.\u201d
\n\u201cMany have died from COVID,\u201d said another worker.
\nAt another Chengdu crematorium, privately-owned Nanling, staff were equally busy.
\n\u201cThere have been so many deaths from COVID lately,\u201d one worker said. \u201cCremation slots are all fully booked. You can\u2019t get one until the new year.\u201d
\nChina has said it only counts deaths of COVID patients caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.
\nZhang Yuhua, an official at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said most recent patients were elderly and critically ill with underlying diseases. She said the number of patients receiving emergency care had increased to 450-550 per day, from about 100 before, according to state media.
\nThe China-Japan Friendship Hospital\u2019s fever clinic in Beijing was also \u201cpacked\u201d with elderly patients, state media reported.
\nNurses and doctors have been asked to work while sick and retired medical workers in rural communities have been rehired to help. Some cities have been struggling with drug shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The lifting of restrictions means COVID is spreading largely unchecked Beijing Chinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surging COVID-19 wave drained resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts over official data prompted some countries to consider new travel rules on Chinese visitors. In an abrupt change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n