Crematoria are reporting an unusually high level of activity after infection control measures were lifted. Chinese authorities, on the other hand, say they have not recorded a single corona death in two weeks.
Hearses stand in a column in the driveway of a Beijing crematorium dedicated to deaths caused by the coronavirus.
Busy employees work to haul the bodies into the building, as black smoke billows from the three pipes, he said Reuters.
Several employees at Beijing crematoria report that hiring has increased sharply in recent days, according to AFP.
– We work very hard! More than 10 out of 60 employees are infected, but we have no choice, he’s been so busy lately, one employee tells the news agency, that she doesn’t want his name printed.
– We cremate 20 bodies a day, most of them are elderly. Many people have fallen ill recently, says the person concerned.
Another crematorium in Beijing says it has a waiting time of around a week, despite staff being available around the clock.
At the same time, vaccination coverage among the elderly is insufficient. Many of them have received an injection, but are not fully vaccinated. It is also unclear how effective the Chinese corona vaccine is.
Lack of overview
The infection has increased rapidly after Chinese authorities lifted a series of coronavirus restrictions last week. However, as people are no longer required to undergo mass testing and use a health app, authorities are struggling to get an overview.
Now people with milder symptoms have to stay at home, and the use of home-use rapid tests has exploded, while many pharmacies will be out of such tests.
Now only cases of infection registered at public test stations are reported. The last time a coronavirus-related death was recorded in China was on Dec. 3, according to the AP.
In the period between 28 May and 19 November, not a single corona death was reported, and only nine deaths were reported from mid-November to early December.
The survivors, however, confirmed to news agencies ap and Reuters that family members died after being infected with the coronavirus.
It risks 1 million deaths
China’s rapid lifting of infection control measures could lead to more than 1 million deaths from covid-19 in 2023, according to a new calculation model from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in the United States.
According to Reuters the institute’s calculations also show that the infection in China could peak on April 1, and that the number of deaths will then have reached 322,000. By then, a third of the population may have been infected, says IHME director Christopher Murray.
Officially, 5,235 people have died from the virus in China over the past two years, most at the start of the pandemic.
