China’s healthcare system is buckling under the strain of a new outbreak that has swept through schools and colleges, triggering a surge in hospital admissions and stoking fears that the country may be slipping into an era of repeat pandemics like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crisis began with a pneumonia outbreak at a nursing college in Henan, and the virus quickly spread to other educational institutions. As the number of pneumonia cases exploded, hospitals across the country were overwhelmed with patients, forcing many to close or evacuate and triggering anxiety among students who fear their school will be next.
Staff members were forced to put on extra shifts at the Beijing Children’s Hospital as sick kids soared. The hospital posted on WeChat that the influx was due to the city’s recent plunge into frigid temperatures. “Beijing is currently showing a trend of multiple pathogens coexisting,” the hospital said, adding that it saw 400 to 500 infected patients daily — four times the usual number.
Another hospital in Liaoning, the prosperous northeastern province that borders North Korea and Russia, was also swamped with sick children. The spokesman for the hospital told state media that it was seeing patients with symptoms including fever, vomiting and breathing problems. The hospital also warned that its emergency department could not handle the volume and that classes were being suspended.
Meanwhile, hospitals in Beijing and Shanghai were coping with a wave of children infected with COVID-19 or well-known respiratory illnesses, such as influenza, mycoplasma pneumonia, a widespread bacterial infection that often affects young children, and the common cold. The number of these patients was so great that doctors had to turn away dozens of people seeking care, according to the medical website ProMed.
Despite the rising number of infections, officials in China have continued to insist that the virus is under control. The National Health Commission (NHC) convened a press conference this week to address a recent surge in symptomatic patients, pointing out that the numbers had risen after Beijing relaxed disease controls last month. But health experts have called into question China’s claims, citing a wide range of factors, from a lag in reporting to the NHC’s “narrow” definition of what counts as a COVID death.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged China to be more transparent in sharing data on the epidemic, but Beijing appears to have yet to make plans to change its strategy. Earlier this month, the NHC stopped publishing daily case tallies as it eased restrictions on movement and ended its zero-Covid policy. Instead, it says it will allow the CDC to provide “relevant epidemiological information.” The NHC has yet to say when that will happen. Reuters correspondents Geir Moulson and Colleen Barry in Berlin, Carleen Johnson in Seattle, and Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report. Reuters 2019. All rights reserved.
