The full amount of coronavirus infections in China is now “difficult” to measure, according to the country’s top health organisation, with officials saying instances are growing quickly in Beijing after the government unexpectedly abandoned its zero-Covid policy last week.
After nearly three years of striving to eradicate the virus, the abrupt stop of mass testing and quarantines has resulted in a comparable decline in officially recorded illnesses, which had reached an all-time high only last month.
With much of the nation no longer requiring testing, China’s National Health Commission stated on Wednesday that their figures no longer represented reality.
Many asymptomatic patients are no longer participating in nucleic acid testing, making it hard to determine the true number of asymptomatic sick people, according to the NHC.
The announcement comes after Vice Premier Sun Chunlan stated that new illnesses in the capital were “rapidly spreading,” according to official media.
Chinese officials are keen to continue opening up, with Beijing’s tourist ministry announcing on Tuesday that it will resume tour groups entering and exiting the capital.
However, experts fear that the country would be ill-equipped to handle an increase in cases, with millions of susceptible elderly still not completely vaccinated and underfunded institutions without the means to deal with an expected inflow of infected patients.
On Wednesday, a line of roughly 50 individuals formed outside the Puren fever clinic in Beijing, with many locals claiming AFP they were infected with Covid.
“Basically, if we’re all lined up here, we’re all sick. “We wouldn’t have come here if we weren’t,” one guy in line told AFP.
I’m here with a senior member of my family; he’s had a fever for about ten days in a succession, so we’ve come to see him.”
Medicine Shortage
Restaurants, stores, and parks can finally reopen, but locals are finding it difficult to adjust to life with the virus.
Many people suffering from symptoms have chosen to self-medicate at home, while others have chosen to remain indoors to avoid becoming infected.
Businesses are also hurting as COVID-19 sweeps across the populace, affecting their workforce.
As a result, Beijing’s streets are mostly deserted.
Residents have complained of running out of cold medicines and long lineups at pharmacies, while Chinese search giant Baidu reported that searches for fever-reducing Ibuprofen had increased by 433% in the previous week.
Soaring demand for speedy antigen testing and drugs has created an underground market with exorbitant rates, with purchasers forced to get the items from “dealers” whose contact information is circulated among WeChat groups.
Authorities are cracking down, with market authorities fining one Beijing firm 300,000 yuan ($43,000) for selling expensive test kits, according to the local Beijing News on Tuesday.
People are flocking to social media to flaunt off their test results and share comprehensive details of their experience while sick, which is a sea change in a country where infection with the virus was long taboo and recovered patients suffered prejudice.
“When my body temperature rose beyond 37.2 degrees, I started adding sugar and salt to my lemon water,” Beijing-based Xiaohongshu social network user “Nina” said in one story meant as guidance for others who had not yet been infected.
“I’ve been revived!!” another account owner captioned a snapshot of a sequence of five positive antigen tests and one negative.
China Sees “Rapidly Growing” Infections, Making Tracking “Impossible.”
