Efforts to protect the elderly from the novel coronavirus infection may have started to collapse in Chinese nursing homes. It is a taste of how the sudden change from the “zero corona” policy has caused a serious situation.
Chinese authorities this month imposed severe restrictions on the zero-corona policy with little preparation for the next wave of infections.relieveddone. Without waiting for instructions from the central government, many care homes cut off contact with the outside world and decided to operate in a “bubble style”.
Lockdowns have proven ineffective at preventing the spread of the new coronavirus, and if the death toll in care homes becomes public knowledge, it is at its most vulnerable before allowing the virus to spread nationwide. There is also the danger let public anger flare up as to why more steps weren’t taken to protect the people.
Experts and government health officials have often cited the need to protect the elderly as a justification for a zero-coronavirus policy.
A doctor examines a CT scan in the emergency department of a Beijing hospital on December 27.
In the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong province, about two to three elderly patients with severe symptoms have died a day in a home for the past two weeks, a hospital doctor said on condition of anonymity. Nursing homes will have to wait at least four days to be picked up by the funeral home.
Many elderly people and staff have been infected since the first cases were confirmed less than a week ago, said a nursing home nurse in Shanghai, who asked not to be named.
In China, only 42% of people aged 80 and over have received a booster vaccination. About 8.2 million older adults live in 38,000 facilities in the country, according to 2020 data.
news-rsf-original-reference paywall">Original title:Chinese nursing homes bear the brunt of a sharp Covid pivot(extract)
