After a week of dilution China for some containment procedures COVID-19 virus The toughest in the world, there is still uncertainty about the direction pandemic In the largest country in the world by population.
While there are no indications of the dramatic rise in the number of cases that some had feared, the government says it is now impossible to get an accurate picture of the actual numbers nationwide.
2000 new infections
The National Health Commission said on Thursday that China recorded 2,000 new cases of the Covid-19 disease on Dec. 14, up from 2,291 cases the day before.
Excluding imported infections from abroad, China recorded 1,944 new local infections with symptoms, down from 2,249 a day earlier.
And China stopped tracking asymptomatic infections on Wednesday, noting that there are few tests among people showing no symptoms, making it difficult to track the overall outcome.
China has recorded no new deaths, keeping the death toll at 5,235.
As of Dec. 14, mainland China had recorded 371,918 confirmed cases of the coronavirus with symptoms.
Running out of meds and test kits
in Beijing and elsewhere, Medicines are running out Test kits have ended up in pharmacies and many hospital workers are staying at home.
Downtown Beijing was largely empty Thursday, and businesses and restaurants that stayed open or didn’t radically cut their hours saw few customers.
Some queues have formed outside pharmacies and diet clinics, the number of which has more than tripled in Beijing, to more than 300, despite government calls for those with mild symptoms to recover at home without excessive healthcare resources.
China’s “zero Covid” policy of mandatory lockdown, quarantine and testing has been blamed for stifling the economy and creating enormous social pressure, and the impact of the Dec. 7 easing of measures has yet to come into focus.
Different strains of the virus
While cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have invested heavily in health care, cities and second- and third-tier communities in the vast rural hinterlands have far fewer resources to cope with a major outbreak.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Yale public health professor Shi Chen said strains of the virus have multiplied in part because there is no family doctor system, which makes people more dependent on hospitals.
“If people don’t have such a stay-at-home culture, reserving these resources for the sicker people could easily cause the system to crash,” Chen continued.
(Associated Press, Reuters)
