Hospitals in Shanghai overwhelmed by influx of Covid-19 patients

In the Overflowing Shanghai hospitalselderly patients sick with covid – who cough, groan and have difficulty breathing – fill the emergency services.

Three years after the appearance of the first global cases of coronavirus in its territory, China It is facing a wave of sickness since the lifting of the draconian measures of its “zero covid” policy last month.

These restrictions, which have allowed most Chinese to be largely free of the virus since 2020, have led to growing public frustration and dealt a heavy blow to the economy.

In Shanghai, one of the richest cities in China, the health situation is especially critical. Since December 2022, approximately 70% of the population, that is, some 18 million people, have contracted the virus according to the official media.

In two hospitals in the megalopolis, the AFP observed on Tuesday hundreds of patients, mostly elderly, lying on stretchers amid overwhelmed emergency services.

Many are connected to infusions or oxygen bottles and remain under cardiac supervision.

Most are wrapped in blankets, thick coats, and woolen hats. Some seem inanimate. Others receive treatment outside the building, on the sidewalk, due to lack of space.

Outdated figures from reality

At Huashan Hospital, near the site where demonstrations against the fatigue of the police broke out in November “zero covid” policya young man stands next to the bed of another elderly patient and protects him from the comings and goings of the crowd that runs through the place.

In a waiting room at Tongren Hospital in western Shanghai, a nurse carefully holds a straw to a patient’s dry lips. It’s connected to an oxygen tank. Meanwhile, a doctor in a white coat and visor takes care of an elderly woman who is shivering under a thick blanket.

Faced with the influx of patients, doctors infected with covid continue to work tirelessly, according to testimonies collected by AFP in hospitals across the country.

Shanghai is no exception, and from time to time, medical staff let out a hacking cough.

The authorities acknowledge that, at present, the magnitude of the epidemic is “impossible” to determine, since coronavirus detection tests are no longer mandatory and the data is fragmentary.

In a short time, the health system was overwhelmed. Pharmacies lack medicines to reduce fever and crematoriums are not enough due to the influx of bodies.

The National Health Commission (NHC), which has a ministerial character, stopped publishing the daily figures for cases and deaths. Currently, it is the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is in charge of it but, starting next week, it will only do it once a month.

Authorities also reviewed the criteria for attributing a death to covid. Since early December, only 15 virus-related deaths have been recorded in the country of 1.4 billion people.

Figures that show a total gap with the reality observed in the place.