peribiden China struggled against the biggest surge in the case of Coronavirus since the start of Pandemic, with millions under the kuncian and health care system felt pressure.
One of the last countries adhering to the strategy of zero-covid, China aims to stand every infection with tight locking and by sending all cases to safe facilities.
It puts tensions in the Chinese medical system that has been less pressurized, as an Omicron variant that greatly transplaces quickly moving through the population.
Here are some of the main challenges of China in the war against Covid:
Vaccination level
Beijing said more than 1.2 billion people in China had received two covid vaccine doses in mid-March – almost 90 percent of the population.
It has also launched a booster campaign but more than half the population has not received third shots.
The big challenge is protecting parents, with only about half of Chinese people over 80 double vaccinations and less than one fifth after receiving a booster.
Among more than 60s, only half had received a third shot.
Officials have launched a fresh boost to encourage parents to get the third dose, after hospitals in Hong Kong are overwhelmed by severe case waves – most of the elderly patients who are not vaccinated.
China uses the Homegrown vaccine and has not approved foreign-made shooting, but has given “conditional” approval to Paxlovid drug covid-19 Pfizer.
China’s vaccine has shown a lower level of efficacy in the study compared to many foreign jabs.
However, some Chinese vaccine makers have recently been given clinical trials in clinical trials at the domestic MRNA Covid Jab – the same technology as Pfizer / Biontha and Moderna shots.
The hospital stretches
China’s health system lacked staff and struggled to overcome large and aging populations even before a pandemic.
According to the National Health Commission, China only has 2.9 general practitioners per 10,000 people. England has the same amount for every 1,000 people.
Some Chinese regions are very short of resources.
In Jilin Province, the recent Covid cluster site, the authorities said there were only 22,880 hospital beds for a population of 24 million.
Peking University researchers have warned that China can suffer from “colossal outbreaks” that will quickly flood the medical system if the authorities weaken limitation with the same degree with the United States and the United States.
This is likely to lead to hundreds of thousands of new cases a day, the researchers said.
Urban rustic divide
Although there is a large reduction in rural poverty, there are still significant differences in access to health care between rural and cities.
Most of China’s wealth, equipment, and expertise are based in top cities where richer residents can choose between various hospitals including international clinics.
According to the National Health Commission report last year, China only has 1.6 medical workers per 1,000 people in rural areas and only 1.5 hospital beds.
Although almost 40 percent of the population lived in the countryside, the Chinese countryside only had a total of 1.4 million hospital beds.
Rustic Chinese migrating to the city to work also struggle to access health care in cities because of red ribbons.
Maintain ‘zero-covid’
Although it has the most advanced city in China, Shanghai has come down into the crisis when authorities scramble to find enough beds for people who test positively.
Authorities say 130,000 new beds are ready or are being built in emergency places.
About 40,000 beds were established at the Shanghai National Exhibition and Convention Center.
But most of now are filled with people with mild or no symptoms at all.
Meanwhile, Shanghai residents under Kuncian have complained about lack of access to food and medicines that are not related to Covid.
“The steps of zero-covid control which was released by Draconian” has flooded the medical system, according to Yanzhong Huang, a senior colleague for global health in the Council of Foreign Relations in New York.
This is “the result that the zero-covid strategy should be avoided”, he told AFP.
Two thousand soldiers and 38,000 medical workers from all over the country have been sent to Shanghai as reinforcements.
At least two asthma patients died after being reportedly rejected by medical services because of Covid rules.
As a pressure on the growing system, some close contacts are permitted to quarantine at home, while the rapid home testing kit has been deployed for the first time.
The Shanghai Health Commission Head Wu Jinglei said this week that even though the city had 50 percent more ambulance on the road than before the plague, it still could not handle all requests for medical assistance.
