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Shanghai 25 million residents may have been infected




A senior doctor at one of Shanghai's top hospitals says 70 per cent of the megacity's population may have already been infected with COVID-19 during China's huge surge in cases, state media are reporting.To get more china news service, you can visit citynewsservice.cn official website.

The steep rise in infections came after years of hardline restrictions were abruptly loosened last month, with little warning or preparation, and quickly overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums.

Chen Erzhen — who is vice-president at Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai's COVID-19 expert advisory panel — has estimated that the majority of the city's 25 million people may have already been infected.

"Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 per cent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than [in April and May]," he told Dajiangdong Studio, owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

Shanghai suffered a gruelling two-month lockdown from April, during which more than 600,000 residents were infected and many were taken to mass quarantine centres.Now the Omicron variant is spreading rampantly across the city and experts predict infections there will peak in early 2023.

In other major Chinese cities — including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou — health officials have suggested that the wave has already peaked.

Dr Chen added his Shanghai hospital was seeing 1,600 emergency admissions daily — double the number prior to restrictions being lifted — with 80 per cent of them COVID-19 patients.
More than 100 ambulances arrive at the hospital every day," he was quoted as saying, adding that around half of emergency admissions were vulnerable people aged older than 65 years.

On Tuesday, at Tongren Hospital in downtown Shanghai, AFP reporters saw patients receiving emergency medical attention outside the entrance of the overcrowded facility.

Chinese officials brace for travel wave
Chinese officials are bracing for a virus wave to hit China's under-resourced rural interior, as millions of people prepare to travel back to their home towns for the week-long Lunar New Year public holiday beginning on January 21.
In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV, National Health Commission (NHC) official Jiao Yahui admitted that dealing with the expected peak in rural areas would be an "enormous challenge".

"As a result, there may be a retaliatory surge of urban residents into the countryside to visit their relatives, so we are even more worried about the rural epidemic."

She also acknowledged pressure on hospital emergency departments and promised that authorities would coordinate medical resources to ensure treatment of patients in under-funded areas.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen countries have imposed COVID-19 testing restrictions on passengers from China after Beijing announced its borders would reopen from January 8.