China increases hospital beds amid rapid spread of omicron variant of coronavirus

China began freeing up hospital beds after announcing on Wednesday thousands of new coronavirus infections. coronavirus covid-19 caused by an outbreak of omicron variantwhich has millions of people confined in the country.

China registered 3,290 new cases on Wednesday, 11 of them seriously.

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The number is down from more than 5,000 cases on Tuesday, but the contagious variant put China’s health system and its zero-Covid strategy under enormous pressure.

Chinawhere the virus was first detected in 2019 in the city of wuhanhas not officially reported deaths related to covid-19 in more than a year.

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The country previously sent all patients with COVID-19 symptoms to specialized hospitals.

But given the sharp increase in infections, which caused the confinement of the southern city of shenzhena tech hub of 17.5 million people, raised fears of a shortage of hospital beds.

The National Health Commission said Tuesday that patients with moderate cases of covid-19 they could remain isolated in a quarantine center to relieve pressure on hospitals.

“Patients with the omicron variant are usually asymptomatic and moderate cases, most of them do not require serious treatment”said the health authority.

“Any admission to designated hospitals will require many medical resources,” he added.

The images of patients lying on stretchers outside hospitals in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong, overwhelmed by the outbreak of infections, worry the Chinese authorities, who are racing to build hospitals in some provinces.

Images from state television CCTV showed on Wednesday dozens of giant cranes erecting the “temporary hospitals” in the northeastern province of Jilin, which has reported more than 5,000 cases in the past week.

The province, with more than 24 million inhabitants, has only 22,800 hospital beds.

The new outbreak of infections has left tens of millions of people confined across the country, while prompting long lines outside testing sites and tightening controls at ports, raising fears of trade disruptions.

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Source: Elcomercio

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