The Covid-19 epidemic is exploding in China, but its extent is now “impossible” to determine, the Ministry of Health conceded on Wednesday. Beijing and its 22 million inhabitants are particularly affected by this wave of contamination, totally unprecedented in the city since the beginning of the pandemic and which has spread at lightning speed in recent days.
Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said infections were “rising rapidly” in the capital. Many Beijingers claim on social networks to be sick and some companies have reported 90% of their staff infected. These massive contaminations in Beijing are a shock for most Chinese, because only a tiny minority of the country’s 1.4 billion inhabitants had been sick with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Official statistics no longer reflect reality
Last week, China drastically relaxed its health restrictions against the disease, which were intended to limit contamination and deaths as much as possible. The authorities had notably decreed the end of automatic placement in a quarantine center for people who tested positive and the end of massive screening campaigns via PCR tests – which were almost compulsory.
Consequence: the number of people who now take the initiative to go and perform a PCR test has fallen sharply. Logically, the number of new cases detected plunges, giving the false impression that the situation is improving.
The Ministry of Health has thus confirmed that the official statistics no longer reflect reality. “Most people with the virus but asymptomatic no longer do PCR tests, so it is impossible to have an accurate idea of the true number of people infected,” he said.
Determined to pursue the reopening of the country
Most people now do self-tests at home, a method that goes under the radar of health authorities. Search engine Baidu reported that searches for the word “ibuprofen”, a fever and flu medication that is now on everyone’s lips in China, had increased by 430% in one week.
Finally, in complete reverse of its “zero Covid” strategy which it has long defended at all costs, the government now seems determined to continue the reopening of the country. Beijing tourism authorities announced on Tuesday the resumption of group tourist trips to and from the capital.
But this epidemic wave, which beyond the capital is expected to spread to other parts of the country, could be harshly felt by the hospital system, especially in the less favored areas of the country. The other concern concerns the elderly, millions of whom, by personal choice or the impossibility of going to a vaccination center, are not yet fully immunized against Covid-19.
