- Some cities say the peak of COVID infections was last month.
- “Too early” to say how severe infections are: Chinese expert
- The Chinese Embassy in South Korea has suspended short-term visas.
BEIJING: Many parts of China are already past their prime. COVID-19 infection, state media reported Tuesday, with authorities downplaying the severity of the outbreak despite international concerns about its scale and impact.
A summary by Health TimesA publication managed by People’s DailyThe Communist Party’s official newspaper said infections were declining in the capital Beijing and several Chinese provinces. Almost all of the 100 million people in Hainan province have already been affected, an official was quoted as saying.
The virus has been spreading freely in China since a policy U-turn in early December following protests against three years of ruthlessly enforced “zero-COVID” rule. China has reopened its borders. On Sunday, the last major restrictions are lifted.
A succession of lockdowns, relentless testing and varying levels of movement restrictions since the early 2020s have pushed the world’s second-largest economy to one of its slowest growth rates in nearly half a century and largely It is a cause for concern.
Since the outbreak of the virus, China has stopped publishing daily infection numbers and has been reporting five or fewer deaths per day since the U-turn policy, a figure disputed by the World Health Organization. Is.
Many Chinese funeral homes and hospitals say they are overwhelmed, and international health experts predict at least one million Covid-related deaths in China this year.
On Tuesday, one Health Times A compilation of reports from local government officials and health experts across the country suggested that the COVID wave has passed its peak in many regions.
Kan Quan, director of the Henan Provincial Epidemic Prevention and Control Office, was quoted as saying that the infection rate in the central province was about 90 percent as of January. 6. The number of patients in the province’s clinics reached a peak on December. 19, but the number of serious cases is still high, he said without giving further details.
Acting Mayor of Beijing Yin Yong was quoted as saying that the capital has also passed its prime. Li Pan, deputy director of the municipal health commission in Chongqing city, said the peak was reached in December. 20.
In Jiangsu Province, the peak was reached in December. 22, while in Zhejiang province “the first wave of infections has passed smoothly,” officials said. Two cities in southern Guangdong province, China’s manufacturing hub, reached their peak before the end of the year.
Separately administered by the state China DailyA prominent health official said the percentage of serious cases was unclear.
Wang Guoqiang, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the First Hospital of Peking University, said, “It is too early to conclude the overall percentage of severe and critical Covid patients in China because different types of hospitals report different numbers.
Criticism of Pfizer
China has rejected criticism of its data as politically motivated attempts to tarnish its “success” in dealing with the pandemic and has said any future variations are more contagious. It is likely to occur but may cause less severe disease.
Testing requirements introduced by several countries, including the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, France and others in response to China’s COVID outbreak, were described by the Foreign Ministry as “discriminatory”.
Financial markets see the new restrictions as a mere inconvenience, with the yuan hitting a nearly five-month high on Tuesday.
South Korean and Japanese shop owners, Thai tour bus operators and K-pop groups were among those licking their lips at the influx of more Chinese tourists.
Although Beijing also requires negative COVID test results from people arriving in China, officials have threatened retaliation against countries that make the test mandatory for those arriving from China.
The Chinese embassy in South Korea said on Tuesday that it will stop issuing short-term visas for Korean citizens.
State media has also taken a swipe at Pfizer Inc ( PFE.N ) over the price of its COVID treatment Paxlovid.
The nationalist tabloid Global Times said in an editorial, “It’s no secret that the forces of US capital have already amassed considerable wealth from the world through the sale of vaccines and drugs, and the US government is cooperating all the time. “
Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Borla said Monday that the company is in discussions with Chinese authorities about the price of Paxlovid, but not over licensing the generic version in China.
The sudden change in Covid policies has left China’s health system unprepared, with many hospitals ill-equipped to handle patients in critical conditions and small towns scrambling to secure supplies of basic anti-fever drugs. are
Yu Weshi, chairman of UCare Pharmaceutical Group, told Reuters his firm had increased production of the anti-fever drug fivefold last month to one million boxes a day.
Wang Lilly, general manager of another pharmaceutical firm, CR Double Crane, told Reuters that intravenous drops are their most in-demand products.
The company has eliminated weekends since January to meet demand.
“We’re running 24/7,” Wang said.