👀 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/12/08/asia-pacific/china-majority-population-covid/

Most Chinese may end up with COVID, senior health adviser warns

Bobby

In the first half of December, media reports in China were inundated with messages of moderation that hinted at incapacities and insufficiencies where Covid control was concerned. This included a wave of “if not necessary” (非必要) reports. Citizens should not dial 120 emergency hotlines or visit the hospital if not necessary. They should not return home to the countryside, leave the city, go out, scan their health codes, or attempt to do PCR testing, unless absolutely necessary. 

According to reports from Chinese media in early to mid-December, daily emergency calls to 120 in Beijing had rocketed past 30,000, compared to an average of 5,000 per day prior to the policy change. This far exceeded the emergency hotline’s capacity. In Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, the emergency hotline received an average of 4,600 calls a day from the public in early December, 2.3 times normal levels. As emergency calls rose across the country, a number of areas, including Sichuan’s capital of Chengdu, urged the public not to dial 120 unless urgently necessary. 

Medications to reduce fever and inflammation were in such short supply and in such demand that couriers delivering the medicine to customers were forced to disguise packages out of fear that they might be hijacked.

In the first half of December, media reports in China were inundated with messages of moderation that hinted at incapacities and insufficiencies where Covid control was concerned. This included a wave of “if not necessary” (非必要) reports. Citizens should not dial 120 emergency hotlines or visit the hospital if not necessary. They should not return home to the countryside, leave the city, go out, scan their health codes, or attempt to do PCR testing, unless absolutely necessary.   According to reports from Chinese media in early to mid-December, daily emergency calls to 120 in Beijing had rocketed past 30,000, compared to an average of 5,000 per day prior to the policy change. This far exceeded the emergency hotline’s capacity. In Zhengzhou, the capital city of Henan province, the emergency hotline received an average of 4,600 calls a day from the public in early December, 2.3 times normal levels. As emergency calls rose across the country, a number of areas, including Sichuan’s capital of Chengdu, urged the public not to dial 120 unless urgently necessary.   Medications to reduce fever and inflammation were in such short supply and in such demand that couriers delivering the medicine to customers were forced to disguise packages out of fear that they might be hijacked.

😞 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/01/09/china-crematorium-covid-deaths/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axioschina&stream=china

The Washington Post Exclusive Satellite images show crowds at China’s crematoriums as covid surges A funeral home in Tongzhou, on the outskirts of Beijing, appears to have built a new parking area, ac

Satellite images show crowds at China’s crematoriums as covid surges

Todd Smith

China Condemns Its People to Relive the Nightmare of 2020
The world’s most populous nation could have followed a Singapore-style orderly exit from Covid Zero — by preparing. Instead, it’s emulating Hong Kong’s disaster.  https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-01-02/china-covid-policy-condemns-people-to-relive-2020-disaster?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

To get an idea of what that could look like, consider Hong Kong in February. That’s when the highly contagious Omicron variant broke through the city’s zero-COVID defenses and swept through the densely packed metropolis.

Although 72% of residents had been vaccinated against COVID-19, vaccine uptake among vulnerable senior citizens was considerably lower. Less than 45% of those 70 and older were inoculated when the outbreak got underway, and among residents of assisted-living homes, it was below 20%.

Within weeks, a massive convention center was transformed into a makeshift hospital to care for elderly COVID-19 patients. Wait times for ambulances lasted up to two days. Morgues ran out of coffins as the daily death toll soared from zero to nearly 300 even though the variant often seems less dangerous than its predecessors.

Feng Zijian, the former deputy head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than a billion PRC citizens will get infected...

To get an idea of what that could look like, consider Hong Kong in February. That’s when the highly contagious Omicron variant broke through the city’s zero-COVID defenses and swept through the densely packed metropolis.  Although 72% of residents had been vaccinated against COVID-19, vaccine uptake among vulnerable senior citizens was considerably lower. Less than 45% of those 70 and older were inoculated when the outbreak got underway, and among residents of assisted-living homes, it was below 20%.  Within weeks, a massive convention center was transformed into a makeshift hospital to care for elderly COVID-19 patients. Wait times for ambulances lasted up to two days. Morgues ran out of coffins as the daily death toll soared from zero to nearly 300 even though the variant often seems less dangerous than its predecessors.

Sam Mendoza

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Chen Erzhen, a top administrator at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital who also serves on the city's COVID advisory board, told Chinese state media that he estimates up to 70% of Shanghai — with a population of around 26 million — had been infected. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-03/china-shanghai-covid-numbers-latest/101824998

A senior doctor at one of Shanghai's top hospitals says the majority of the megacity's 25-million-person population may have already been infected with COVID-19.

Up to 70 per cent of Shanghai residents may have been infected with COVID-19, senior doctor says

While official public data on the number of Covid infections since the government switched to its “dynamic let it rip” policy are useless, there is little doubt that hundreds of millions have been infected, and tragically many thousands have died, and many more are going to. Infections appear, emphasis on “appear”, to have peaked in some of the larger cities but there is always a lag between infections and serious illness and death, and cases appear to be just beginning to surge in rural areas.

Bobby

A group of likeminded people in China Covid Curated are talking about this.