China's Medical Staff Overwhelmed as Covid Surges Through Country

Strategic Insights -

China's medical staff are being pushed to their limits as the country struggles to cope with one of the world's biggest Covid outbreaks. With Beijing's about-face on its zero-Covid containment strategy, mass testing, quarantines, and lockdowns have been scrapped, allowing the virus to spread rapidly through China's largest cities. As a result, hospitals are facing overcrowding, and medical staff are being asked to work while sick, with some even being recalled to duty as retired workers.

Key Takeaways:

  • At least 250 million people in China may have caught the virus in the first 20 days of December, according to internal estimates.
  • Hospitals in Beijing are seeking to enrol retired doctors and nurses to cope with the surge of patients, with some instructing staff to work as long as their temperature is under 38C.
  • Medical staff are being blamed by the public for the difficult situation, with videos online accusing doctors of not treating Covid patients in a proper or timely manner.
  • Experts have expressed fears that pressure on hospitals in coastal cities will be amplified in the country's poorer interior, where fewer doctors and nurses are available per head of population.
  • A doctor in a hospital in Sichuan province said that staff were feeling increasingly stressed as patients with fevers packed consulting rooms, with medicines in short supply.
  • The sudden removal of restrictions has caused "maximum virus spread" and "maximum pressure for hospitals," according to Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank.
  • The number of fever clinic patients in Shanghai's Huashan Hospital has increased fivefold in the city centre, according to an interview with state media.
  • Local officials have adopted a laissez-faire approach, pushing for "the population to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible," which experts warn is exacerbating the crisis.

Statistics:

  • At least 250 million people in China may have caught the virus in the first 20 days of December (Source: Financial Times).
  • 38 out of 38 staff members at the neurology department at Luoyang No. 3 Hospital in central China's Henan province had been infected but continued working through sore throats and high fevers (Source: WeChat and local TV).
  • The number of fever clinic patients in Shanghai's Huashan Hospital has increased fivefold (Source: State media).
  • China has officially reported no new deaths on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and only a handful of fatalities since the outbreak began this month, despite evidence of a sharp increase in activity at Beijing's crematoriums and bodies in hospital Covid wards.

Sources:

  • Financial Times
  • WeChat and local TV
  • State media
  • Council on Foreign Relations think-tank
  • China Daily/Reuters