INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Chinese hospitals were under intense pressure on Wednesday as a surging wave of COVID-19 infections strained resources in the last major
country to move towards treating the virus as end emic.In an abrupt change of policy, China earlier this month began dismantling the world&s
strictest COVID-19 regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a complete re-opening next year,
Reuters reported.The move, which came after widespread protests against the restrictions, means COVID-19 is spreading largely unchecked and
likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.The speed at which COVID-19 rules have been
scrapped has left China&s fragile health system overwhelmed and prompted countries around the world, which have long been living with the
virus, to consider travel restrictions for Chinese visitors, given questions about official data coming out of Beijing.Staff at Huaxi, a
large hospital in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, said they were &extremely busy& caring for patients with COVID-19, as they have
been ever since curbs were eased on December 7.&I&ve been doing this job for 30 years and this is the busiest I have ever known it,& said
one ambulance driver outside the hospital who declined to be named.There were long queues inside and outside the hospital&s emergency
department and at the adjacent fever clinic on Tuesday evening
Most of those who arrived in ambulances were given oxygen tanks to assist with their breathing, Reuters reported.&Almost all of the patients
have COVID,& one emergency department pharmacy staff member said.The hospital has no stocks of COVID-19-specific medicine and instead can
simply provide drugs for specific symptoms such as coughing, she added.Zhang Yuhua, an official at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital said
patients who have come in recently are mainly the elderly and critically ill with underlying diseases
She said the number of patients receiving emergency care had increased to 450-550 per day, from roughly 100 before, according to state
media.Pictures published by state-run China Daily showed rows of mostly elderly patients, some breathing through oxygen tubes, receiving
treatment from medical staff in white hazmat suits inside the hospital&s intensive care unit.Official statistics, however, showed only one
COVID-19 death in the seven days to Monday
International health experts predict at least one million COVID-19 deaths in China next year.The post China hospitals ‘extremely busy& as
COVID-19 spreads unchecked first appeared on Ariana News.
