Funeral homes and hospitals in China are under a lot of pressure due to the spread of COVID-19

Chinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense pressure on Wednesday as the surge in COVID-19 exhausted their resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts about official data have led some countries to consider new rules for visitors from China.

In a sharp reversal of strategy, China this month began dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of extensive lockdowns and testing, putting its battered economy on track for a full reopening next year.

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The lifting of the restrictions, which came after widespread protests against them, has meant that COVID is spreading largely unchecked and is likely to infect millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.

People are in a temporary settlement for people with mild or no symptoms provided by the city of Shanghai, China, December 27, 2022. (Photo by EFE/EPA/ALEX PLAVEVSKI) (ALEX PLAVEVSKI/)

Countries including India, Italy, Japan and Taiwan have declared that they will require COVID tests for travelers from China.

The speed with which China, the last major country in the world to move toward treating the virus as endemic, has scrapped its COVID rules has overwhelmed its fragile health system.

China’s overall vaccination rate is over 90%, but the number of adults who have received a booster drops to 57.9%, and 42.3% for those over 80, according to data from the Chinese government. In the past week.

The country has nine domestically manufactured COVID vaccines approved for use, but none have been updated to deal with the highly infectious omicron variant.

China reported three new COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, up from one on Monday, numbers that do not tally with what funeral homes are reporting, nor with the experience of much less populous countries after they reopened.

A security personnel in protective gear stands guard at the entrance of a fever clinic in Beijing on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Noel CELIS / AFP) (NOEL CELIS /)

Beijing has said it only records patient deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related.

Staff at Huaxi, a large hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu, said they were “extremely busy” caring for COVID patients.

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“I’ve been doing this job for 30 years and this is the busiest I’ve ever known.said an ambulance driver outside the hospital who did not want to be named.

There were long lines in and out of the hospital emergency department and an adjacent fever clinic on Tuesday afternoon. Most of those arriving by ambulance received oxygen to help them breathe.

This image shows a patient with covid-19 receiving treatment at the Tianjin First Center Hospital in Tianjin on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Noel Celis / AFP) (NOEL CELIS /)

“Almost all patients have COVIDsaid a member of the emergency department pharmacy staff.

The hospital does not have stocks of specific COVID medicines and can only supply medicines for symptoms such as cough, he added.

The parking lots around Dongjiao Funeral Home, one of Chengdu’s largest, were full. Funeral processions followed one another while smoke billowed from the crematorium.

“Now we have to do this about 200 times a daysaid a funeral home worker. “We are so busy that we don’t even have time to eat.” This is so since the opening. Before it was about 30-50 a day”.

“Many have died of COVID”says another worker.

This image shows covid-19 patients receiving treatment at the Tianjin First Center Hospital in Tianjin on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Noel Celis / AFP) (NOEL CELIS /)

At another Chengdu crematorium, the private Nanling, the staff were just as busy.

“Lately there have been many deaths from COVIDsaid one worker. “The cremation stalls are all occupied. Can’t get one until new year maybe 3rd January at the earliest”.

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Zhang Yuhua, a senior official at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said most of the recent patients were elderly and seriously ill with underlying diseases. He claimed that the number of patients seen urgently had risen to 450-550 a day, up from 100 previously, according to state media.

The fever clinic at Beijing China-Japan Friendship Hospital was also “overcrowded” with elderly patients, state media reported.

Nurses and doctors have been asked to work while sick and retired medical workers from rural communities were being reinstated to help. Some cities have had trouble getting supplies of anti-fever medicine.

Source: Elcomercio