Beijing: NHK World, citing a recent survey, reported that more than 60 percent of people surveyed in the Chinese province of Sichuan have tested positive for Covid-19. Authorities in Sichuan province conducted an online survey in which 158,500 people participated and 63 percent said their PCR or antigen test results had come back positive. The population of the province is approximately 83 million.
Meanwhile, the Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the true percentage of infected people was likely higher, as about 30 percent did not report symptoms such as fever and cough, according to NHK World.
The surge in cases has come after China relaxed its coronavirus control measures on 7 December. Chinese media said fever medicines and antigen test kits have sold out or are rising in price in parts of Shandong and Yunnan provinces, according to NHK World.
Meanwhile, cases have risen as China largely ended its zero-tolerance policy towards the coronavirus in recent weeks, leading to nationwide shortages of testing kits and medicine.
The New York Times (NYT) reported that the intensity and magnitude of the country’s first nationwide outbreak remained a mystery largely because official figures from the central government were scant.
The government has a narrow definition of which deaths should be counted as deaths due to Covid. Anecdotal evidence, such as social media postings of a hospital morgue full of body bags, is quickly removed by censors. Now a picture of this virus spreading like a wild fire is coming out. As the NYT reports, one province and three cities have reported Covid estimates far higher than official figures in recent days.
China is rushing to vaccinate the elderly, but many are reluctant
Chinese officials are paying people over the age of 60 to get the COVID-19 vaccine by going door-to-door. But even as cases rise, Li Liansheng, 64, said his friends are worried about stories of fever, blood clots and other side effects.
“When people hear about such incidents, they may not be ready to take vaccines,” said Li, who was vaccinated before being infected with COVID-19. A few days after a 10-day battle with the virus, Lee is troubled by a sore throat and cough. He said it was like a ‘common cold’ with mild fever.
China has joined other countries in treating cases instead of trying to stop transmission of the virus by dropping or easing rules on testing, quarantine and movement as it tries to reverse an economic downturn. But the shift has flooded hospitals with feverish, wheezing patients.
The National Health Commission announced a campaign on Nov. 29 to raise vaccination rates among older Chinese, which health experts say is key to avoiding a health care crisis. It is also the biggest obstacle for the ruling Communist Party in lifting the last of the world’s tightest antivirus restrictions.
China kept the number of cases low for two years with a ‘zero-covid’ strategy that quarantined cities and confined millions of people to their homes. Now, as it backs away from that approach, it is facing widespread outbreaks that have already occurred in other countries.
The health commission has recorded only six COVID-19 fatalities this month, bringing the country’s official toll to 5,241. This is despite several reports of relatives dying by the families.
A health official said last week that China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID-19 toll. This unusually narrow definition excludes many deaths attributed to COVID-19 in other countries. Experts forecast 1 to 2 million deaths in China by the end of 2023.