Around 70 percent of Shanghai’s population has been infected with the coronavirus, a prominent Chinese doctor has revealed.
According to a report by AFP after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions last month and the sudden increase in the number of patients infected with the virus recently, the emergency ward of the hospitals had also seen a sharp increase in pressure.
According to Chen Zhen, vice president of Ravijin Hospital and a member of the Shanghai Expert Covid Advisory Panel, most people in the city of 20.5 million people were infected with corona. He said that the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai had become alarming and probably 70 percent of the city’s population was affected.
Shanghai has been under a strict lockdown where more than 600,000 residents have been infected with coronavirus and many people have been admitted to quarantine centres.
Zhejiang province’s epidemic control authority has said that one million new patients had been infected with Covid-19 in recent days and a new wave had reached alarming levels in the province.
At Shanghai’s Tongran Hospital journalists saw emergency medical examinations of patients being conducted in a crowd in the emergency ward outside the entrance, AFP reported.
National Health Commission (IHC) official Jiao Yahui acknowledged in an interview with China’s state media that treating patients affected by the new wave of corona in resource-poor rural areas will be a big challenge.
Meanwhile, dozens of countries have made corona tests mandatory on passengers coming from China after Beijing announced the reopening of the border on January 8.
