The World Health Organization (WHO) said hospitals in China appeared to be filling up amid concerns about the new wave of covid-19 hitting the country.
WHO’s head of emergencies, Michael Ryan, said Intensive Care Units (ICUs) were full, although officials said the numbers were “relatively low”.
Official data shows no one died from covid on Wednesday (21), but there are doubts about the true impact of the disease.
In recent days, hospitals in Beijing and other cities have been overflowing as the new wave of Covid has hit the country.
Since 2020, China has imposed strict restrictions as part of its “covid zero” policy.
But the government lifted most of these measures two weeks ago after historic protests against strict controls.
Since then, the number of cases has skyrocketed, and fears of high death rates have grown, especially among the vulnerable elderly.
Despite the increase, official figures show that only five (20) people died on Tuesday and two (19) on Monday due to covid.
This prompted WHO head of emergencies, Michael Ryan, to urge China to provide more information on the new wave of virus spread.
“The number of cases in ICUs in China has been (officially) reported to be relatively low, but reports show that ICUs are full,” he said.
“We’ve been saying this for weeks, it will always be very difficult to completely stop this highly contagious virus with only public health and social measures.”
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a weekly news conference in Geneva that he was “very concerned about the situation developing in China”.
He requested specific data on disease severity, hospitalizations, and the need for intensive care.
Ryan added that “vaccination is an escape strategy” from coronavirus outbreaks.
China has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective in protecting people from serious illness and death from Covid than the mRNA vaccines used in most of the rest of the world.
It came as the German government announced on Wednesday that it had shipped the first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to China.
German vaccines should initially be administered to expatriates in China – estimated at around 20,000.
While it is the first foreign Covid-19 vaccine delivered to China, details about when it will arrive or the size of the shipment have not been disclosed.
During a visit to Beijing last month, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pressed for the vaccine to be made free to Chinese citizens as well.
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.