• China Covid news: Beijing says tracking Covid cases now 'impossible' as infections surge
The true scale of COVID-19 infections in China is now "impossible" to track, the country's top health body said on Wednesday, as Beijing warned of a rapid outbreak after officials abruptly abandoned their zero-tolerance policy in the country. Was.
China last week loosened restrictions for mass testing and quarantining after nearly three years of attempting to stamp out the virus, allowing officially reported infections to fall quickly from an all-time high recorded last month. Got a signal.
And with testing no longer required in most parts of the country, China's National Health Commission acknowledged on Wednesday that its numbers no longer reflected reality.
"Many asymptomatic people are no longer participating in nucleic acid testing, so it is impossible to accurately determine the true number of asymptomatic infected people," the NHC said in a statement.
The statement came after Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said the capital's new infections "are increasing rapidly", according to state media readouts.
Beijing's tourism officials said on Tuesday that Chinese leaders are determined to press ahead with the opening, saying it would restart tourist groups in and out of the capital.
But the country is facing a surge in cases that it is ill-equipped to manage, millions of vulnerable elderly people still not fully vaccinated and hospitals lacking the resources to deal with the expected influx of infected patients.
And as the country navigates a difficult path from its zero-covid policy towards living with the virus, many people with symptoms have opted to self-medicate at home.
Beijing residents have complained of long lines at pharmacies selling cold medicines, while Chinese search giant Baidu said searches for fever-reducing ibuprofen surged 430 percent in the past week.
Rapid antigen tests and rising demand for the drugs have created a black market with astronomical prices, while buyers resort to getting the goods from "dealers" whose contacts are being circulated around WeChat groups.
Local Beijing News reported on Tuesday that market regulators are cracking down on a business in Beijing with a fine of 300,000 yuan ($43,000).
And in a sea change in a country where infection with the virus was once taboo and recovered patients faced discrimination, people are turning to social media to show off their test results and detail their experiences of getting sick. Taking support
"When my body temperature exceeded 37.2 degrees, I started adding some sugar and salt to my lemonade," wrote Beijing-based Xiaohongshu social site user "nina" on an account that hasn't yet been infected as advice to the people.
"I am resurrected!!" Another account owner captioned a photo showing a row of five positive antigen tests and one negative.
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