Two things are happening at the same time in China: The covid infection is increasing rapidly The strict restrictions are being removed This has meant that many Chinese will travel out of the country to obtain western vaccines against the covid virus. In the million-strong city of Shenzhen, most people are vaccinated. Nevertheless, the infection is high, resident Zalina tells The South China Morning Post. – I definitely want an mRNA vaccine, if possible, the young woman tells the newspaper. She has booked a vaccination in Macao on 2 January. Mainland Chinese must apply to enter Hong Kong. From 10 January, the first people will be able to visit since the pandemic. In Hong Kong, they know that more people want Western vaccines. Both Biontech/Pfizer and Moderna are so-called mRNA vaccines, which have not been used in China. Studies have shown that the Western vaccines are more effective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus than the Chinese vaccines. A health worker checks a man for covid in Guizhou province on December 21. Photo: STR / AFP Encountering restrictions in other countries Over 250 million Chinese are said to have been infected in the first 20 days of December. Nevertheless, China continues to open up. Recently, China removed the requirement for quarantine upon entry. The stock exchanges across Asia reacted with price rises and searches for trips abroad have skyrocketed. Now, however, Chinese travelers face restrictions in other countries. Japan, one of the most popular travel destinations, is introducing a seven-day quarantine. India now requires a negative covid test. The United States also says it is considering restrictions on traveling Chinese. The reason is the infection boom and the fact that the lack of transparency from the Chinese side makes it difficult to get an overview, according to the BBC. “We are made of flesh and blood” Beijing may reach its infection peak this week. Shanghai could be next. Both cities are experiencing a sharp increase in the number of seriously ill people. – Serious patients have increased from 50-60 a day to 800. There are fewer of us at work because doctors and nurses are sick with covid. That is what doctor Chen Xiaosong from Shanghai Renji Hospital tells Jiefang News. Other doctors and nurses have been told to work even if they are infected. – We can work hard, we can work overtime. But when the day is over, health professionals, like everyone else, are made of flesh and blood, not iron, says doctor Ning in Beijing to the Financial Times. Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing is known as one of the foremost in lung disease in China. They, too, are experiencing a tremendous increase in the number of critically ill patients. Covid patients lie on hospital beds in the lobby of a hospital in the city of Chongqing in southwest China. The picture was taken on 23 December. Photo: NOEL CELIS / AFP Less censorship on state television – Every day we have almost 40 patients who require immediate life-saving help. They already have a severe lack of oxygen when they come in, says assistant chief physician, Gu Cheng Dong to CCTV 4. The hospitals say the age of the seriously ill is decreasing: At first, most were over 80. Now they are admitting more people down to the age of 70. At Peking Union College Medical Hospital, one of China’s foremost, the doctors tell of tremendous pressure. – In the 30 years I have been a doctor, I have never experienced that we have been in a more demanding situation, says Zhu Huadong, hospital director of the emergency department to CCTV. Frustration and desperation have boiled over on Chinese social media. Videos of full morgues and queues for cremation centers are shared there. The fact that the strictly state-controlled television channel CCTV also shows images of overcrowded hospital corridors and interviews pressured doctors and nurses can be considered an acknowledgment of the challenges the healthcare system faces. Patients on stretchers in the emergency department of a hospital in Chongqing on 22 December. Photo: NOEL CELIS / AFP Sending doctors to the big cities When the pandemic broke out three years ago, hospitals in Beijing sent doctors to Wuhan. Then Wuhan, with its 11 million, was the epicenter of the infection. Now doctors from other cities and provinces in China are being sent to Beijing to help hospitals in the capital, according to the South China Morning Post. At the same time, the infection is spreading to the same provinces. In parts of the internal hospital communication that the newspaper was able to see, it is stated that the message to send health workers should not be communicated. The situation Beijing now finds itself in is the one the rest of China must prepare for. In the provinces of Anhui and Hainan, several news reports about a rapidly increasing infection. In a large service company that news visits, an employee says that they have been told to report to work even if they are ill, if the symptoms are not serious. Several people around us are coughing at work. A woman wearing full protective gear walks the streets of Beijing on December 26. Photo: NOEL CELIS / AFP Moved away from zero tolerance China abruptly reversed its infection control policy after growing frustration and protests against the strict restrictions. On 7 December, the zero-toll sense for infection was dropped after almost three years. It is uncertain whether the authorities gave in to the protests or whether they understood that they were about to lose control of the infection. The authorities have stopped registering people who do not have symptoms. They only register covid deaths if the patient has died from lung complications. No one thus knows how many are sick or who die from covid infection in China. A Chinese law professor says health personnel who are under investigation for having cared for corona patients in violation of China’s previous zero tolerance should now be acquitted or have their cases put aside. They worked in clinics that as recently as November accepted corona patients even though they were not allowed to. Under the zero-tolerance policy, only designated clinics were to treat covid patients. Now the conditions for them to do something punishable are no longer present, the professor believes. – What is the point of presenting them before a court when they are quite obviously innocent, says Han Xu, professor at Sichuan University.
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