China: Doctors Give Strong Warning to President Xi

Chinese doctors have warned that the country will not relax lockdown measures, in a Financial Times article: “Chinese doctors warn that “we are not ready” as the threat of the “exit wave” of covid slows reopening ambitions”.

The article begins like this:

Chinese doctors have a strong message for Xi Jinping: the country’s healthcare system is not prepared to deal with a massive national coronavirus outbreak that will inevitably follow any relaxation of strict measures to contain Covid-19. The warning to the Chinese leader was issued by a dozen health professionals – including frontline doctors and nurses and local government health officials – interviewed by the Financial Times this month, and echoed by international experts. :”The medical system will probably come to a standstill when faced with massive cases“said a doctor at a public hospital in Wuhan, central China, where the pandemic began nearly three years ago.

In the meantime, China’s official case count is the highest in six monthsincluding a record number of infections in the capital, beijingand in the manufacturing center of the south, guangzhou, where crowds of residents recently escaped a mandatory lockdown and clashed with police, as anger over strict coronavirus controls boiled over. Guangzhou has reported more than 33,000 cases since October. Daily cases hit a record 8,761 on Wednesday, more than double the rate at the height of a two-month lockdown in Shanghai this year..

Today, the Chinese city of Zhengzhouanother area that has seen cases spike this month, has reported 107 new local symptomatic coronavirus cases and 1,556 asymptomatic cases as of November 17.

Markets could react riskily to this when the news gains steam later in the week, serving as a reality check for optimists who expect Xi to end his trademark “zero-covid” policy.

Experts said this policy meant China had not prioritized building strong defenses for a mass outbreak, instead focusing its resources on containment.. At the heart of the problem that Beijing has created for itself is what many see as a inevitable “exit wave,” a rapid rise in infections as the country sheds its “heavy-handed” pandemic restrictionswrote the article.

“The great threat of an exit wave is simply the large number of cases in a short space of time.“said Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong, “I would be reluctant to say that there is a scenario where a wave of outflow does not cause problems for the health system. It’s hard to imagine.”