The rise in COVID-19 infections in China is putting pressure on healthcare workers, especially after the death of a medical student following a seizure in hospital, exacerbating concerns about the healthcare system’s ability to cope.
The death of a Chinese student who was doing hospital work has shaken health workers across the country and raised fears that hospitals would be overwhelmed as Beijing’s lifting of strict Covid-19 restrictions leads to a wave of infections.
A medical college in southwest China’s Chengdu city said the first-year medical student, referred to by his surname Chen, collapsed on Tuesday after completing his clinical work.
He said he died of a heart attack shortly after 10pm Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal cited the student’s classmates, as well as chats and medical records circulating among groups of medical students, seen by the newspaper, that Chen had tested positive for Covid-19.
He appears to have told a coach he had a fever but was still asking him to attend surgeries, according to chat logs.
The school, which previously released a statement that Mr. Chen, 23, was in critical condition, did not indicate whether he had undergone a COVID-19 test.
Up until this month, China had largely succeeded in preventing an outbreak of the virus among healthcare workers, but with the virus spreading in some communities after the recent easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the medical system is grappling the largest outbreak since the first cases of the virus was reported in Wuhan three years ago.
Many Chinese hospitals have stopped testing medical staff. The newspaper says the medical student’s collapse has sparked reactions on social media
A hashtag on the school’s initial statement about Mr. Chen’s situation attracted more than 130 million views on social media platform Weibo.
And a doctor at a large public hospital in Beijing said most of the medical staff there – doctors, nurses and pharmacists – are sick with Covid-19.
Residents of Beijing and other cities say the coronavirus is now spreading with unprecedented ferocity in China, but the true extent of the increase is unclear as authorities have slashed mass testing.
Healthcare workers across the country say they’ve seen a sharp rise in covid cases among co-workers.
And as China has ramped up spending to build more hospitals and develop vaccines in response to the pandemic, much of the money has gone to pay for the now-abandoned Zero Covid strategy, leading to reduced investment to expand medical resources.
Last week, the National Health Commission said the country had 138,100 intensive care beds.
This translates to about 10 beds for every 100,000 people and means that China doubled the number of intensive care beds listed in official records in 2021, from 67,198.
But at the same time, the growth in the number of medical personnel has slowed, and epidemics have left medical personnel with a weakening that cannot be easily repaired.
And medical students have increasingly been called upon to fill the gap, following a pattern seen in New York City and other places hit by heavy Covid cases.
And in China, hundreds of medical students have protested in recent days against the intense workload and high infection rates. Among their demands are better protection against COVID-19, equal pay as full-time hospital staff, and enough time off.
