Shanghai hospital warns of ‘tragic battle’ as Covid spreads

A Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a “tragic battle” with Covid-19 as it expects half of the city’s 25mn people will get infected by the end of next week, while the virus sweeps through China largely unchecked.
After widespread protests against strict mitigation measures, China this month began dismantling its “zero-Covid” regime, which had taken a great financial and psychological toll on its 1.4bn people.
China’s official death count since the pandemic began three years ago stands at 5,241 — a fraction of what most other countries faced — but now looks bound to rise sharply.
China reported no new Covid deaths for a second consecutive day for Wednesday, even as funeral parlour workers say demand for their services has increased sharply over the past week.
Authorities — who have narrowed the criteria for Covid deaths, prompting criticism from many disease experts — confirmed 389,306 cases with symptoms.
Some experts say official case figures have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done following the easing of restrictions.
Infections in China are likely to be more than a million a day with deaths at more than 5,000 a day, a “stark contrast” from official data, British-based health data firm Airfinity said this week.
Airfinity said it examined data from China’s regional provinces, noting that cases are rising quicker in capital Beijing and southern province Guangdong.
The Shanghai Deji Hospital, posting on its WeChat account late on Wednesday, estimated there were about 5.43mn positives in the city and that 12.5mn in China’s main commercial hub will get infected by the end of the year.
“This year’s Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day, and the Lunar New Year are destined to be unsafe,” said the private hospital, which employs some 400 staff.
“In this tragic battle, the entire Greater Shanghai will fall, and we will infect all the staff of the hospital! We will infect the whole family! Our patients will all be infected! We have no choice, and we cannot escape.”
The post was no longer available on WeChat yesterday afternoon. A person who answered the hospital’s main telephone line said they could not immediately comment on the article.
Shanghai residents endured a two-month lockdown that ended on June 1, with many losing income and struggling to find basic necessities.
Hundreds died and hundreds of thousands were infected during those two months.
Yesterday, many areas of Shanghai were almost as deserted as back then, with many residents isolating themselves and businesses forced to shut as staff fell ill. “All our employees are sick,” said a supermarket worker as he was shutting the doors. He said he hoped to re-open on December 30.
Despite the new infections, the last vestiges of the “zero-Covid “ policy are being scrapped.
China plans to cut quarantine requirements for overseas travellers in January, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Experts say China could face more than a million Covid deaths next year, given relatively low full vaccination rates among its vulnerable elderly population.