SAHARA REPORTERS
Chinese hospitals and mortuaries have reportedly been filled with Covid-19 patients and dead bodies of people who died of the pandemic as the virus spread unchecked. Reuters reports that on Wednesday, hospitals and funeral homes were under extreme pressure as the surge wave drained resources, while the scale of the outbreak and doubts over official data have prompted some countries to consider new travel rules on Chinese visitors.
Recall that the Chinese government in December had, in an abrupt change of policy, begun dismantling the world’s strictest COVID-19 regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy on course for a complete re-opening next year.
Some international health experts noted that the lifting of restrictions, which came after widespread protests against them, means COVID-19 is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day.
It was noted that the speed at which China, which remains the last major country in the world moving towards treating the virus as endemic, scrapped COVID rules has left the country’s fragile health system overwhelmed.
