Shanghai warns of ‘tragic battle’ as Covid-19 spreads in China

A Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a “tragic battle” with Covid-19 as it expects half of the city’s 25 million residents to be infected by the end of the year as the virus sweeps across China in large numbers. uncontrolled part.

After widespread protests and a relentless rise in cases, China made an abrupt change in policy this month and began to dismantle its “covid-zero” regime, which has taken a huge financial and psychological toll on its 1.4 billion people.

Still, the official death count in China since the start of the pandemic three years ago is 5,241 – a fraction of what most other countries have recorded.

China reported no new Covid deaths for the second straight day on Dec. 21, even as funeral home officials said demand had picked up in the past week.

Authorities – who have tightened the criteria for deaths from Covid, drawing criticism from many disease experts – have confirmed 389,306 infected cases with symptoms.

Some experts say the official numbers have become an unreliable guide as fewer tests are being done in China after restrictions are eased.

Shanghai Deji Hospital, posting on its official WeChat account on Wednesday night, estimated that there were about 5.43 million positive cases in the city and that 12.5 million in China’s main commercial hub will be infected by the end. of the year.

“Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and this year’s Lunar New Year are destined to be unsafe,” the hospital said.

“In this tragic battle, all of Greater Shanghai will fall, and we will infect all hospital staff! Let’s infect the whole family! All our patients will be infected! We have no choice and we cannot escape.”

Shanghai residents faced a two-month lockdown that ended on June 1, with many losing income and having little access to basic needs. Hundreds died and hundreds of thousands were infected during those two months.

Experts say China could face more than a million Covid deaths next year, given relatively low rates of full vaccination among its vulnerable elderly population.

China’s vaccination rate is above 90%, but the rate for adults who received booster shots drops to 57.9% and to 42.3% for people aged 80 and older, government data show.

At a hospital in Beijing, state television CCTV footage showed rows of elderly patients in the intensive care unit breathing through oxygen masks. It was unclear how many had Covid.

Deputy director of the hospital’s emergency department, Han Xue, told CCTV that they are receiving 400 patients a day, four times more than usual.

“These patients are all elderly people with underlying illnesses, fever and respiratory infection, and they are in very serious condition,” Han said.

The head of the World Health Organization said he was concerned about rising infections and was supporting the government to focus on vaccinating those most at risk.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters the agency needed more detailed information on the severity of the disease, hospital admissions and requirements for intensive care units for a comprehensive assessment.

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China’s policy reversal has caught a fragile health care system unprepared, with hospitals scrambling for beds and blood, pharmacies for drugs and authorities rushing to build special clinics.

Smaller towns away from the rich east and south coasts are particularly vulnerable. Tongchuan, a city of 700,000 in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, on Wednesday called on all medical workers who have retired in the past five years to join the battle against Covid.

“Medical institutions at all levels of the city are under great pressure,” he said in a public statement. State media said local governments are trying to deal with drug shortages, while pharmaceutical companies are working overtime to increase supplies.

Cities across the country were distributing millions of ibuprofen pills to medical institutions and retail pharmacies, according to a report by the state-owned Global Times.

Germany said it had shipped its first batch of BioNTech vaccines to China to be initially administered to German expatriates. Berlin is pushing for other foreigners to take them.

These would be the first mRNA vaccines, considered the most efficient against the disease, available in China. China has nine domestically developed Covid vaccines approved for use.

Some Chinese experts predict the Covid wave will peak in late January, with life likely to return to normal in late February or early March.