China’s top health authority has confirmed the country’s current outbreak is, by far, the largest the world has ever seen. Photo / AP
China’s top health authority has confirmed that the country’s current outbreak is, by far, the largest the world has seen.
Near 37 million people in China were estimated to have been infected with Covid-19 on a single day this week, according to minutes from a meeting of the country’s National Health Commission, Bloomberg reported.
As many as 248 million people – nearly 18 per cent of China’s 1.4 billion population – likely contracted the virus in the first 20 days of the month, the health body estimated.
The figures dwarf the previous daily record of about 4 million and, if accurate, confirm China’s current outbreak is easily the worst ever seen – all while the official tally screams of a cover-up.
Watch my show (here https://t.co/UYxPlq6Hdc ) to understand why students in #CCPChina have to go to class in this kind of condition.#chinacovid #ChinaCovidCases #ChinaCovidSurge #ChinaCovidDeaths #ChinaCovidNightmare #COVID #COVID19 #ZeroCovid #CCPVirus #CCP #China pic.twitter.com/4vJ7J0xNiQ
— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) December 22, 2022
Suspicions of a cover up
The 37m daily cases estimated for Tuesday is drastically different to the mere 3049 infections that were officially reported, and is several times higher than the previous world record.
Global cases hit an all-time high of 4m on January 19, 2022, as Omicron took the reins as the most prevalent variant.
The estimate is also miles higher than a recent estimate from London-based predictive health researcher Airfinity, which this week guessed about 1m people in China were being infected, and 5000 people were dying each day.
Chinese President Xi Jinping abruptly abandoned his controversial zero-Covid policy amid fierce anti-government protests, prompting the tsunami of cases while the official death toll remains suspiciously low.
Officially, China claimed on Wednesday there had been just eight Covid deaths since the beginning of December.
But that doesn’t include Solomon Islands ambassador John Moffat Fugui, who has died in China amid Beijing’s Covid wave, according to the Australian.
The statistics contrast a growing number of reports of overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums pushed beyond their capacity. Horrifying footage has shown bodies “piling up” outside morgues and in hospital hallways as the medical system buckles.
On Thursday, AFP reported visiting a crematorium in China and witnessing 40 bodies being unloaded in two hours.
What a scene! Somewhere in #CCPChina, patients can only receive infusions outside, in the cold wind, as hospitals are all full.#chinacovid #ChinaCovidCases #ChinaCovidSurge #ChinaCovidDeaths #ChinaCovidNightmare #COVID #COVID19 #ZeroCovid #CCPVirus #CCP #China #XiJingping pic.twitter.com/1n6fcStItX
— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) December 23, 2022
The relatives of several of the dead told the publication the deaths were because of Covid. One woman said her elderly relative, who was suffering from cold symptoms, had tested negative but died after they could not get an ambulance in time.
A woman in her 20s said she suspected her father had died of Covid, though he had not been tested.
“He died too quickly, while on the way to hospital,” she sobbed. “He had lung issues to begin with … He was only 69.”
One Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a “tragic battle” with Covid-19, as it expects half of the city’s 25m people to be infected by the end of next week.
‘Deceased, deceased’: Makeshift wards handle the dead
“Deceased, deceased,” a staffer in full protective gear shouted as she handed a nurse a death certificate, their hospital in central China overflowing with Covid patients.
At No. 5 People’s Hospital in Chongqing, the main entrance lobby had been converted into a makeshift Covid ward when AFP visited on Friday.
In the vast atrium, about a dozen beds occupied by mainly elderly patients on IV drips were cordoned off with red and white tape.
In a nearby room, about 40 mostly elderly and middle-aged patients sat on sofas and lay on beds receiving IV drips, some coughing.
A nurse said they all had Covid.
A political death toll
The official death tally also appears to ebb and flow with political protests in the country.
Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong told CNN the definition of a “Covid death” was broadened slightly in April this year, to justify the suffocating restrictions of Shanghai’s Covid lockdown.
Shanghai was locked down from March to June amid fervent protests, with residents barred from leaving their homes even for groceries. Just 588 Covid deaths were reported in that time, from 600,000 infections.
Once the lockdown lifted, however, the official nationwide death toll sat at zero for six months – despite soaring case numbers.
According to Jin, the inconsistencies reveal China’s method of counting Covid deaths to be “entirely subjective”.
“The death data has been misleading from the start,” he told the publication.
Government seizes medications as residents struggle
Meanwhile, the Government has been accused of seizing medical supplies as residents struggle to buy the essentials.
Authorities urged those with mild symptoms to stay at home and take treatment into their own hands, leading to a run on everything from ibuprofen to rapid antigen tests. However, more than a dozen Chinese pharmaceutical firms have been tapped by officials to “secure supplies” of key drugs for the Government, according to AFP interviews and local media.
At least 11 of 42 test kit makers whose products are licensed by China’s medical regulators had a part of their production seized by the Government or received orders from the state, local reports said.
The sweeping illness has “collapsed” China’s broader logistics and transportation sector. Viral footage taken in China shows huge piles of boxes lying in the street and packed into overflowing vehicles, indicating a serious backlog of deliveries.
It adds to an already worrying shortage of pain and fever medications, and sparked concerns of a global shortage given China’s status as a global manufacturing hub.
There are no more beds inside the #Chongqing Medical University Hospital, and the elderly are starting to lie on the floor. The machines that are on the chests are used to replace the human hand to press the heart. #chinacovid #ChinaCovidCases #China pic.twitter.com/gu735rjhmL
— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng 曾錚真言 (@jenniferzeng97) December 21, 2022
Spread of a new variant
There are also fears a dangerous subvariant could form in the rapid-fire transmission among China’s huge population.
Daniel Lucey, a fellow at the Infectious Diseases Society of America and professor at Dartmouth University’s Geisel School of Medicine, previously told Bloomberg there would “certainly be more Omicron subvariants developing in China in the coming days, weeks and months”.
The World Health Organisation also rang the alarm bells, with director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus telling reporters on Wednesday that more information was needed as a matter of urgency.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, on the other hand, claimed China had always released Covid-19 information in a “transparent” manner.
The outbreak is particularly worrying in a country with low vaccination rates among the elderly.
China has relied largely on its own vaccines, which have been proven less effective at preventing serious illness and deaths from Covid than the mRNA jabs used across the world.
Elon Musk may start a new political party to challenge Trump allies.