The Chinese government has remained tight-lipped on the number of deaths so far. However, Chinese officials have warned of continued waves of COVID infections in the coming months, as cases continue to rise after restrictions were lifted earlier this month.
Is the Chinese government losing control over COVID-19 management as cases continue to rise in China? Epidemiologists anticipate at least three waves of the virus in the country during the winter. The Hong Kong Post reported that it is certain that the Chinese government was "under-prepared" as it decided to abruptly end its zero-covid policy following nationwide protests.
"The current outbreak will peak this winter and move in three waves," said Wu Zunyao, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Hong Kong Post cited state media reports of his speech. Wu Junyu made the remarks at a press conference in Beijing.
According to Wu, "the first wave will run from now until mid-January. The second wave is likely to follow soon after, starting with the mass travel of hundreds of millions of people across the country for the Lunar New Year beginning on January 21." happened. "
According to the news report, he predicted that China would face a "third wave from late February to mid-March after returning to work from holidays". Mass travel is expected to start the wave ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on January 21 as people travel to their hometowns to celebrate the day.
Notably, work is slowing down in China's hospitals as they face twin problems - running out of beds due to a large number of patients and health officials being infected, Hong Kong said, citing Western media reports. Told. Meanwhile, pharmacies are running out of stock due to the surge in demand and there is little chance of replenishment.
The Hong Kong Post, citing a state media report, reported that people are reporting countless cases of COVID-19 in their vicinity, despite the official count being around 2,000. Last week, the National Health Commission admitted it was "impossible" to keep track of asymptomatic infections, and it would no longer count them.
Experts have predicted up to a million deaths in the coming months. According to experts, China is ill-prepared to turn out badly as the country struggles to strengthen vaccination rates for the elderly, overwhelmed intensive care capacity in hospitals and shortages of antiviral drugs stockpiles.
According to estimates by three professors at the University of Hong Kong, a nationwide reopening could reduce the number of deaths to 684 per million people under current conditions. As China has a population of 1.4 million, this would amount to 964,400 deaths.
Citing a research paper released last week on the Medrxiv preprint server, the Hong Post report said the surge in COVID-19 cases "is likely to overload many local health systems across the country". The research paper is yet to be peer reviewed.
Meanwhile, lifting COVID-19 restrictions in all provinces would see a 1.5 to 2.5-fold increase in hospital capacity, according to the study. The situation can be avoided if China gives booster shots and anti-viral drugs to the people.
If the fourth dose vaccination covers 85% and antiviral coverage reaches 60%, the death rate could be reduced by 26% to 35%, the study, which is partly funded by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said. CDC) and the report states that the Hong Kong Govt.
According to news reports, city streets in Beijing and Shanghai appeared calm over the weekend despite the easing of restrictions. As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the Xi Jinping-led government is facing questions such as what the government was doing apart from locking people down at homes and conducting mass testing.
Also, if the movement of people has been restricted all these months then how are the cases increasing? Notably, China has been following stringent COVID-19 restrictions since the emergence of the virus.
Chinese authorities are implementing lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing to control the spread of COVID-19. However, the restrictions were eased following nationwide protests by people against the measures.
The government is also facing questions regarding the spread of the virus in rural areas and the availability of effective vaccine doses in sufficient numbers. According to news reports, China's own vaccines have not proved to be as effective as the Indian or Western ones. Furthermore, vaccines developed by other countries are unavailable in mainland China.
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