Chinese officials have admitted that the country’s total number of Covid-related deaths is ‘huge’, with one doctor saying as many as 70 percent of Shanghai’s 25 million residents may have been infected.
The steep rise in infections came after Beijing‘s hardline ‘zero-Covid’ approach was abruptly ended last month, quickly overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums.
In a rare admission, health officials said on TV that the country was seeing an increase ‘in the critical cases or the fatalities’. However, in an attempt to play down the situation, they claimed that the surge was in line with other countries.
Beijing also criticised nations that now require Chinese passengers to show a negative Covid test before entering – that include the UK and the US – warning it could take ‘countermeasures’ in response.
The premier acknowledged ‘unprecedented difficulties and challenges’ in his New Year’s Eve address to the nation and said it was ‘only natural’ that his harsh lockdown measures were met with resistance.
Xi dropped the zero-Covid measures on December 7 but his new strategy of living with the virus has caused infections to skyrocket, with infections currently peaking in Beijing. In the first 20 days of December, the government’s top health authority estimates a staggering 248 million people – equivalent to 18 per cent of the population – contracted the virus.
China maintains that around 5,000 of its citizens have died to the virus since it first broke out in the country at the end of 2019. Experts suggest it could see 9,000 death per day in the on-going wave sweeping the country.
Jiao Yahui, a National Health Commission official, in a rare admission told state broadcaster China Central Television: ‘We have a huge base, so what people feel is that the severe cases, the critical cases or the fatalities are increasing.
‘As far as this wave is concerned, what people have felt is the absolute number, not the low percentage [of deaths to total infections]. Relative to the rest of the world, the infection peaks we are faced with across the country are not unusual.’
Tong Zhaohui, a vice-president of Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, agreed that the number was large but said the relative percentage of deaths may still be low. ‘Think how many people around you have been infected but how many have developed critical cases or pneumonia. I think everyone has the idea,’ he said.
Chen Erzhen, vice president at Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai’s Covid expert advisory panel, estimated that the majority of the city’s 25million people may have been infected.
Shanghai suffered a gruelling two-month lockdown from April, during which more than 600,000 residents were infected and many were forced to isolate in quarantine centres.
But now the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly across the city.
In other major cities – such as Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou – Chinese health officials have suggested that the wave has already peaked.
In Zhejiang province, near Shanghai, disease control authorities said that infections were peaking, with one million new cases in recent days.
Dr Chen said that his Shanghai hospital was seeing 1,600 emergency admissions every day – double the number prior to restrictions being lifted. Some 80 per cent of them are Covid patients.
He claimed that more than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day and around half of emergency admissions are patients over the age of 65.
Elderly Covid patients were found crammed in hospital corridors in Shanghai, coughing, groaning, and gasping for breath.
At two hospitals in the city, hundreds of mostly elderly patients lay on wheeled stretchers in public areas as emergency wards filled beyond capacity. At Tongren Hospital in downtown Shanghai, the corridors overflowed with dozens of elderly patients lying on beds hooked up to IV drips. Some patients wore oxygen masks attached to bedside canisters.
A middle-aged woman in a face mask lifted a flask to the parched lips of a man hooked up to an oxygen cylinder.
Near her, a medical worker wearing blue scrubs and a face visor attended to a grey-haired woman in a red jumper as she shivered under a blanket.
In another hospital, arguments broke out between two people waiting for drips with one woman telling an older man: ‘I was here first. I’m here to get a needle too.’
In Huashan Hospital, younger relatives stood over elderly patients to shield them from crowds of people as they waited for treatment.
Doctors and nurses at hospitals in multiple cities say they have continued to treat patients despite testing positive for the virus themselves.
Despite the explosion of infections, Beijing has taken issue with countries imposing restrictions on Chinese arrivals.
The US, Canada, France and Japan are among several countries that now require Chinese travellers to show a negative Covid test before arrival.
In the UK, passengers from the Chinese mainland — apart from Hong Kong — have to present a negative lateral flow or PCR test before boarding any flight to Britain.
Ministers also plan to test a ‘sample’ of passengers on arrival in the UK to check for variants — such as XBB.1.5, which has been nicknamed ‘the Kraken’.
But people coming from China will be allowed to refuse a second PCR test if they choose, raising the risk they could be positive and go undetected.
And, in stark contrast to other countries, passengers who test positive on arrival will not have to self-isolate.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘We encourage people at the border to take a test to help themselves, their families and wider knowledge on Covid.
‘However the testing is optional and people can decline if they wish to do so.’
Asked if passengers who test positive would be required to quarantine, Transport Secretary Mark Harper told LBC: ‘No, because what we are doing is we are collecting that information for surveillance purposes.’China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: ‘Some countries have taken entry restrictions targeting only Chinese travellers. This lacks scientific basis and some practices are unacceptable.’
She warned that China could ‘take countermeasures based on the principle of reciprocity’.
In late December, Beijing said inbound travellers would no longer be required to quarantine, sending many Chinese people rushing to book trips abroad.
Countries have cited China’s lack of transparency around infection data and the risk of new variants emerging as reasons to restrict travellers.
China recorded only 22 Covid deaths since December, after dramatically narrowing the criteria for classifying such deaths.
But last week Ms Jiao insisted that China had always published data ‘on Covid-19 deaths and severe cases in the spirit of openness and transparency’.
She added: ‘China has always been committed to the scientific criteria for judging Covid-19 deaths, from beginning to end, which are in line with the international criteria.’
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne defended the tests, saying: ‘We are in our role, my government is in its role, protecting the French.’
Starting on Wednesday, anyone flying from China to France will have to present a negative virus test taken within the previous 48 hours and be subject to random testing on arrival.
Meanwhile, the British Government will shortly set out full details regarding new rules for travellers entering the UK from China, Downing Street said.
From January 5, travellers from China into England will be required to show a negative Covid-19 test before departing.
Downing Street indicated that details for travellers from Hong Kong would also be set out soon.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘We’re working on the final details of the implementation of the policy, and that includes on Hong Kong, and we will update in due course.’
He said that the Government was in discussions with Chinese officials regarding the new policy, but that he was not yet aware of any ‘significant improvement’ in Chinese information-sharing at this point.
Downing Street rejected any suggestion that the new rules for Chinese travellers could signal a wider change for visitors travelling to the UK from countries with high rates of Covid-19.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘A part of the reason for this was because of a lack of comprehensive health information being shared.
‘We’re working with the Chinese government to encourage them – we’re not alone in this – to get more information from them.’
Some Canadian experts have questioned the effectiveness of the testing. Kerry Bowman, assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, said people can test positive long after entering the country.
The requirement is ‘not based on science at this point’, he said after Canada announced measures last weekend.
Chinese officials are expecting infections to surge in the countryside later this month as millions of people travel back to their hometowns for the Lunar New Year.
