China says Covid spread ‘impossible’ to track as number of infections surges in Beijing | China

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The country’s health authorities said the spread of Covid-19 in China was now “impossible” to track, announcing that it had stopped recording asymptomatic cases in its daily tally.

The admission comes amid soaring presentations to hospitals and clinics as Covid-19 spreads rapidly through the population following the sudden removal of strict pandemic measures. The authorities urged people not to seek emergency healthcare unless necessary, and announced the launch of second boosters for the elderly and vulnerable.

Last week, the Chinese government abruptly ended a long-standing strict anti-coronavirus policy, scrapping measures including travel restrictions and lockdowns. Health authorities also ended mass testing campaigns and compulsory periodic testing that were policy pillars. As a result, official daily reports have become an increasingly inaccurate measure of outbreaks.

The National Health Commission (NHC) announced on Tuesday that it would no longer report asymptomatic cases, which for most of the pandemic have been reported as a separate cluster – and are usually much larger.

“Many asymptomatic patients no longer participate in nucleic acid testing,” the NHC said. “It is impossible to accurately understand the actual number of asymptomatic infections.”

The commission officially reported 2,291 symptomatic cases across China on Tuesday, in contrast to reports from residents and health services of outbreaks of infection – particularly in the capital, Beijing.

Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said earlier that new infections in Beijing were “increasing rapidly,” according to state media.

Official state media China Daily reported that Beijing saw a more than six-fold increase in hospital presentations in the past week, and a 16-fold increase in fever clinics.

Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, told the media that on December 9, there were 31,000 calls to emergency medical services, six times the average.

Anecdotally, residents describe many friends, families and co-workers who have contracted Covid, with one telling the Guardian it has “swept through” the city. Staff at companies, schools and embassies have described huge numbers of colleagues as sick with the virus at home, or caring for family members. James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based attorney, said on Twitter that 90% of the people in his Beijing office had COVID.

“Obviously some are miserable. Many nurse children/parents at home. Our ‘work at home’ policy is now ‘work at home if you’re good enough’. This thing came along like an express freight train,” he said.

There are increasing reports of an immediate impact on the business.

“It’s very frustrating. Businesses have to close because of sick employees, even though they could legally be open,” Noah Fraser, managing director of the Canadian-China Business Council in Beijing, told Reuters.

‘Blame started pouring in from the companies’ [foreign] The team is headquartered on the ground in China, with HQ asking “Why can’t China operations get through these restrictions?” All other markets have had to adapt and have done so successfully.

Residents also complained of long queues at pharmacies and out of cold medicines. Agence France-Presse reports that a black market has emerged for quick checks and that some drugs are being sold at inflated prices by “dealers” whose contacts are shared on social media groups.

Online healthcare platform 111.inc has begun selling Pfizer’s oral medication, Paxlovid, in the retail market, after it was previously only available through hospitals. But it sold out within half an hour of what was reported by the media, according to Reuters.

It was not clear how many boxes — each priced at more than $400 — or when they would be restocked, but Pfizer told Reuters it was “actively cooperating with all stakeholders to secure adequate supplies of Paxlovid in China.”

People line up outside a pharmacy in Beijing where authorities say Covid is spreading rapidly. Photo: Reuters TV/Reuters

For nearly three years, the Chinese government has used mass testing, lockdowns, strict quarantines and travel restrictions in response to any outbreak. The policy successfully kept the virus at bay for more than two years, and officials fiercely defended it as the best response, even as it was challenged by more transmissible variants. But frequent and sudden closures and travel bans are starting to worry residents, and protests erupted last month after a series of deadly tragedies that people linked to zero-Covid law enforcement.

Last week, the government suddenly announced an end to most restrictions, and the official messaging about Covid instantly went from being something to fear and avoid at all costs, to a mild disease that society can live with.

“It feels very strange actually, they’ve gone from 100 to zero it seems,” a Guangzhou resident told the Guardian. “I think people are, too [still] Worried about catching Covid because there are fewer unusual people I’ve noticed.”

Earlier this week, China’s top health expert said their model indicated that the wave would peak within a month, and that life in China would return to a pre-2020 level of normalcy by the middle of next year.

But there are concerns that a rapid reopening could lead to a collapse of China’s health system in the short term. Health resources are spread unfairly, and nationwide, there are far fewer intensive care beds per capita than in other neighboring countries. China also has an aging population, with older demographics notably more vulnerable.

On Wednesday, the National Health Commission said it would roll out a second booster dose for high-risk groups and people over 60.

AFP and Reuters contributed to this report

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