Chinese authorities estimated that some 250 million people in the country have been infected with COVID-19 in the past three weeks.
Sun Yang, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, presented the figures during a closed-door meeting of senior–high-level officials, according to the Financial Times. The figure, which represents 18% of the population, includes 37 million people who were infected on Tuesday alone.
Sun reported that the infection rate continues to rise, with more than half of the population in Beijing and Sichuan already infected, two people familiar with the matter said.
Beijing abruptly abandoned its “zero COVID” policy, which mandated lockdowns and widespread testing when even a few cases had been detected. Many had considered the policies too restrictive and potentially contributed to the deaths of at least 10 people in a fire at a high-rise apartment building.
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People wait for medical care at the Fever Clinic area at Tongren Hospital in Shanghai’s Changning district, on December 23, 2022 – China is battling a wave of coronavirus infections that has hit the elderly hard but it resulted in only a handful of deaths being reported after the government redefined the criteria by which deaths from Covid-19 are counted.
(Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
The deaths sparked nationwide protests and a demand for the government to end the policy, which Beijing agreed to do, but the sudden turnaround and lack of preparedness, including inadequate vaccination levels, led to a surge in the infection rate.
Washington and the World Health Organization have pressed Beijing for greater transparency regarding case numbers, disease severity and other health numbers. Official reports from Wednesday’s meeting provided few details about what the top officials discussed.
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China has also moved to narrow the definition of what qualifies as a COVID-related death, which will lower the public death count. Authorities reported only eight of those deaths since Dec. 1.
People receive medical care at a Fever Clinic area at a Hospital in Shanghai’s Changning district, on December 23, 2022 – China is battling a wave of coronavirus infections that has hit the elderly hard but resulted in only a handful of deaths reported after the government redefined the criteria by which deaths from Covid-19 are counted.
((Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images))
Hospitals in Baoding and Langfang have been forced to turn away ambulances and sick patients seeking treatment, while health administrators have been forced to treat patients in overcapacity intensive care units on benches or on the ground. authorities said.
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And crematoriums have had to turn people away as workers struggle to keep up with rising deaths, an employee told the Associated Press.
SHANGHAI, CHINA – DECEMBER 24, 2022 – Patients line up outside a fever clinic at a hospital in Shanghai, China on December 24, 2022.
((CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images))
“There have been so many people dying,” said Zhao Yongsheng, a funeral home worker, who estimated that his shop burned 20 to 30 bodies a day. “They work day and night, but they can’t burn them all.”
A Reuters witness saw a line of about 40 hearses waiting to pull into a parking lot outside a crematorium to remove 20 coffins. Staff wore hazmat suits and smoke was billowing from multiple furnaces, but it has not yet been confirmed, although it is likely, that the deaths were due to COVID-19.
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Some residents reported waiting days to cremate family members or paying steep fees to ensure a “quick fix.”
Lawrence Richard of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
