China’s health-care system is beset by problems
China is seeing its greatest incidence of coronavirus infections since the outbreak began, putting millions of people on lockdown and straining the healthcare system.
China, as one of the only countries still committed to a zero-Covid policy, plans to eliminate all infections by enforcing strict lockdowns and referring all cases to secure facilities.
As the highly transmissible Omicron type spreads quickly across the population, this adds to China’s already overburdened healthcare system.
Some of China’s main roadblocks in the fight against Covid are as follows:
– Rates of vaccination –
According to Beijing, more than 1.2 billion people in China had gotten two doses of the Covid vaccination by mid-March, accounting for about 90 percent of the population.
In addition, a booster campaign has begun, although more than half of the population has yet to get a third dosage.
The elderly are particularly vulnerable, with just around half of Chinese individuals over 80 obtaining two immunizations and less than a fifth receiving a booster.
Only around half of individuals over the age of 60 had had their third shot.
Following a spate of serious cases in Hong Kong’s hospitals, the most of which were unvaccinated elderly patients, officials have launched a fresh push to convince older persons to obtain a third dose.
China employs local vaccines and has not approved any foreign injections, however it has given Pfizer’s Paxlovid for Covid-19 “conditional” approval.
When compared to a huge number of foreign immunizations, Chinese vaccines have a lower percentage of efficiency in testing.
Several Chinese vaccine producers, on the other hand, recently got authorisation to perform clinical studies on a locally made mRNA Covid vaccine, which uses the same technology as the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
– Hospitals are overburdened with patients –
China’s healthcare system was already understaffed and unable to keep up with the country’s vast and ageing population before the pandemic.
According to the National Health Commission, China has just 2.9 general practitioners per 10,000 people. The population density of the United Kingdom is almost same per 1,000 people.
Some parts of China are severely under-resourced.
For a population of 24 million people, authorities in Jilin province, which recently had a Covid cluster, stated there were only 22,880 hospital beds available.
Researchers at Peking University have warned that if the government lifts bans to the same degree as Europe and the United States, China might suffer a “colossal pandemic” that would quickly overwhelm the country’s medical system.
According to the experts, this would result in hundreds of thousands of new cases every day.
– The urban-rural divide –
Despite considerable reductions in rural poverty, large gaps in healthcare access between rural and urban regions exist.
The rich have access to a range of hospitals, including international institutions, and much of China’s money, equipment, and experience are concentrated in top-tier cities.
According to a National Health Commission study issued last year, China’s rural areas had just 1.6 medical workers per 1,000 inhabitants and only 1.5 hospital beds.
Despite the fact that rural China is home to more than 40% of the population, the country only has 1.4 million hospital beds.
When it comes to healthcare, rural Chinese who migrate to cities for work suffer red tape.
– Maintaining a ‘zero-Covid’ state – Despite being China’s most sophisticated metropolis, Shanghai has descended into chaos as officials scramble to find enough beds for patients who test positive.
130,000 additional beds are available or under development in temporary facilities, according to officials.
The National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai is constructing over 40,000 beds.
The bulk, however, are now occupied by people who have just moderate symptoms or none at all.
Meanwhile, hostage-taking people in Shanghai have complained about a shortage of access to food and drugs unrelated to Covid.
“Draconian, heavy-handed zero-Covid control measures” have flooded the medical system, according to Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
He told AFP that this is “a result that the zero-Covid strategy is designed to avoid.”
2,000 soldiers and 38,000 medical staff from throughout the country have been rushed to Shanghai as reinforcements.
At least two asthmatics are said to have died as a result of Covid limitations preventing them from receiving medical attention.
As the system grows more strained, some patients’ close relatives are being allowed to quarantine at home, and for the first time, fast home testing kits have been employed.
Despite having 50 percent more ambulances on the road than before the pandemic, Shanghai’s health commission head Wu Jinglei claimed last week that the city was still unable to meet all medical demands.
