As the number of corona infections19 in China is exploding, an expert diagnosis has been made that around 70% of residents of Shanghai, the ‘economic capital’, may have already been infected.
According to the Hong Kong Mingbo of the 4th, Chen Erzhen, deputy director of the Ruijin Hospital affiliated with the Medical School of the Jiao Tong University of Shanghai, said in an interview with the People’s Daily, organ of the Communist Party of China, on the 2nd that “the The current epidemic is so widespread that 70% of the population of Shanghai may have already been infected.”
“This is 20 to 30 times bigger than when Shanghai was locked down for two months last spring,” he added.
Shanghai has a population of about 25 million, 70% of which is 17.5 million.
Shanghai shut down the entire city in April and May last year due to the increase in the number of corona infections19.
At that time, more than 600,000 people were confirmed and nearly 600 died.
“Currently, the number of patients visiting our hospital’s fever clinic has decreased from an average of 600 to 100 per day, but the number of patients in the emergency room has recently doubled to 1,600 per day,” said Deputy Director Cheon . vulnerable groups at risk such as the elderly.
Seriously ill patients represent 10%”.
“In response to this, we have increased the number of treatment rooms in the emergency room from four to eight and have placed additional medical staff from elsewhere in the emergency room,” he added.
He said he was also infected with Corona 19, but the symptoms were mild.
Previously, Beijing’s infection rate may have already exceeded 80%, said Zeng Guang, a former chief epidemiologist at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, on the 29th of last month.
Beijing’s population is about 22 million.
In Zhejiang province, adjacent to Shanghai, the number of infections is also rising rapidly.
The day before, the Zhejiang provincial health authority had forecast that the number of confirmed cases of Corona 19 would reach about 1 million per day and that the infection would peak by the end of this month.
Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ruijin Hospital have estimated that the wave of corona19 infection will pass before the Lunar New Year on the 22nd in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqin and Chengdu.
However, a much larger wave of infections was predicted to spread to rural areas after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong customs authorities announced the previous day that they cracked down on border checkpoints with China for six days until the 1st, and discovered smuggled COVID-19-related medicines worth a total of 940,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 150 million won), including antipyretics and analgesics.
A total of 3,900 items were seized, including Lianhua Qingyuan, a traditional Chinese flu treatment, painkillers, antipyretics, rapid antigen kits, antipyretic patches and thermometers.
Hong Kong authorities said they searched three checkpoints along the border with China, found these smuggled drugs in five trucks bound for China, and arrested five drivers.
As COVID-19 medicines are in short supply in China, related drug stock-outs and out-of-stock situations are occurring in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.
Hong Kong’s pharmaceutical industry said 2 that 70% of buyers of COVID-19 related drugs appear to be buying them for relatives and acquaintances in China.
In Hong Kong, as the number of confirmed cases waxes and wanes by 20,000 a day since the middle of last month, residents are hoarding medicines.
/yunhap news
