Beijing, China.- The patients, mostly elderly, waited lying on stretchers in the corridors and received oxygen sitting in wheelchairs in the midst of a rebound in Covid-19 cases in the Chinese capital.
On Thursday, the capital’s Chuiyangliu Hospital was packed with newly arrived patients. By mid-morning there were no more empty beds, although the ambulances continued to bring patients to the center.
Nurses and doctors scrambled to gather information and triage the most urgent cases.
The surge in severe cases requiring hospital care comes after the Chinese government last month withdrew most of its strict anti-pandemic restrictions after nearly three years of high-profile quarantines, travel bans and school closures. economic impact and provoked unprecedented street protests since the late 1980s.
Coinciding with the outbreak, the European Union “strongly encouraged” its member countries to require passengers from China to be tested for the virus before leaving the country.
In the last week, the community countries have reacted to the situation in the Asian giant with a wide variety of restrictions for those who travel from there, despite their initial commitment to act together.
Italy, the first European country to register fatalities due to the pandemic in early 2020, was also the first to require negative coronavirus tests on flights from China, but France and Spain were quick to adopt their own measures.
This followed the US requirement to submit a negative result obtained within 48 hours of travel.
China has warned of “countermeasures” if such measures are extended throughout the EU.
For his part, the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, indicated on Wednesday his concern about the lack of data from the Chinese government about the outbreak.
At a press conference on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said Beijing has “shared information and data with the international community in an open and transparent manner.”
“Right now, the Covid-19 situation in China is under control,” Mao added.
“In addition, we hope that the WHO secretariat will take an objective and impartial position, based on science, to play a positive role in dealing with the pandemic globally.”
To deal with the latest outbreak, China has tried to increase vaccination among the elderly, but its efforts have been hampered by past scandals involving missing medicines and price warnings about adverse vaccine reactions among that part of the population.
Vaccines developed in China are also considered to be less effective than mRNA vaccines used in much of the world.
Despite concerns, Hong Kong announced it will reopen its border with mainland China on Sunday and allow tens of thousands of people to cross daily without the need for quarantine. Restrictions for those traveling to the mainland were unclear.
Many of the land and sea border posts between the semi-autonomous territory and China have been closed for almost three years and the reopening is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong’s tourism and retail sectors.
