Beijing: China's healthcare system is facing several hardships and at the verge of collapse as the faulty Covid policies of the Xi Jinping-led Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the form of draconian zero-Covid policy which not only harmed the economy but also terribly failed to control the virus, Inside Over reported.
At a time when thousands of people are dying and doctors are giving out in overcrowded hospitals, not even a mask mandate exists in the nation right now. The schools are still open, but nobody is going there since the kids are either sick or are afraid they will become sick amid a Covid spike in the Chinese mainland.
According to several media reports, confidence in China's manufacturing and service sectors was at its lowest point since 2020 at the end of 2022.
According to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, about 80 per cent of European companies operating in China have reduced their revenue forecasts. According to estimates, 20 per cent of young people are unemployed, Inside Over reported.
According to a World Health Organization assessment of the Covid situation in China, there were 31,585 fatalities and more than 10 million verified cases of the disease between January 3, 2020, and December 23, 2022. Between one million and two million deaths are predicted for China in 2023, according to experts.
Employees in local hospitals have been working overtime during the holidays to ensure the treatment of patients amid the epidemic wave as part of the overall coordination of the epidemic prevention and control departments to optimize epidemic prevention policies and ensure scientific treatment, according to Global Times.
Districts in Shanghai, including Jiading, Minhang and Songjiang have improved their management measures for graded treatment to divert non-urgent COVID patients from top-tier hospitals as infections and critical cases peaked in recent days. The country is also facing a shortage of medical supplies amid the ongoing wave of covid and healthcare is at brink of collapse.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on December 28 announced that the US will require a negative COVID-19 test from all travellers arriving in the country from China as well as those from Hong Kong and Macau. "CDC is announcing today that it will implement a requirement for a negative COVID-19 test or documentation of recovery for air passengers boarding flights to the United States originating from the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau," the CDC said in a statement released on its website.
Earlier, protests erupted across China due to the harsh lockdowns after 10 people died in an apartment fire. There were allegations that firefighters were stopped from coming inside the apartment block due to the quarantine orders. The country reversed its COVID policy due to widespread protests in nine cities across China. —ANI