China races to install hospital beds as COVID-19 surge sparks concern abroad

Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday (Dec 20) as the United States said Beijing’s surprise decision to let the virus run free was a concern for the world.

China this month abruptly began dismantling its stringent “zero-COVID” regime of mass lockdowns after protests against curbs that had largely kept the virus at bay for three years but at significant costs to society and the world’s second-largest economy, Reuters reported.

Now, as the virus sweeps through a country of 1.4 billion people who lack natural immunity having been shielded for so long, there is growing concern about possible deaths, virus mutations and the impact, again, on the economy.

“We know that any time the virus is spreading, that it is in the wild, that it has the potential to mutate and to pose a threat to people everywhere,” US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Monday, adding that the virus outbreak was also a concern for China’s economy and, in turn, global growth.

Beijing reported five COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, following two on Monday which were the first fatalities reported in weeks.

In total, China has reported just 5,242 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic erupted in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019, an extremely low toll by global standards.

But there are rising doubts that the statistics are capturing the full impact of a disease ripping through cities after China dropped curbs including most mandatory testing on Dec 7.

Since then, some hospitals have become inundated, pharmacies emptied of medicines and streets have been unusually quiet as residents stay home, either sick or wary of catching the disease.

Some health experts estimate 60 percent of people in China – equivalent to 10 percent of the world population – could be infected over the coming months, and that more than 2 million could die.

In the capital, Beijing, security guards patrolled the entrance of a designated COVID-19 crematorium where Reuters journalists on Saturday saw a long line of hearses and workers in hazmat suits carrying the dead inside. Reuters could not immediately establish if the deaths were due to COVID-19.