Medical staff in China's hospitals say COVID-19 ripping through their ranks
14/12/2022 06:19
By Farah Master and Julie Zhu
HONG KONG, Dec 14 (Reuters) - A growing number of
China's doctors and nurses are catching COVID-19 and some have
been asked to keep working, as people showing mostly moderate
symptoms throng hospitals and clinics, according to medical
staff and dozens of posts on social media.
China's health authority did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on infections among medical staff.
Health experts say China's sudden loosening of strict COVID
rules is likely to trigger a surge in severe cases in coming
months, and hospitals in big cities are already showing signs of
strain.
Reuters was unable to immediately get verification from
hospitals on waiting times and bed utilisation rates, but
photographs circulated on social media showed patients in
Beijing and neighbouring Baoding waiting for hours to get
treated.
Health officials have been recommending that people with
mild COVID symptoms quarantine at home and have also said most
of the cases reported in the country are mild or asymptomatic.
"Our hospital is overwhelmed with patients. There are 700,
800 people with fever coming every day," said a doctor surnamed
Li at a tertiary hospital in Sichuan province.
"We are running out of medicine stocks for fever and cold,
now waiting for delivery from our suppliers. A few nurses at the
fever clinic were tested positive, there aren’t any special
protective measures for hospital staff and I believe many of us
will soon get infected," Li added.
A nurse at another hospital in Chengdu said: "I was swamped
with nearly 200 patients with COVID symptoms last night."
Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University, said
insufficient medical resources to cope with an overload of COVID
cases contributed to a surge in deaths in Hong Kong when
infections peaked there earlier this year, and he warned that
the same was going to happen in China.
"One of the reasons we had such a high mortality rate (in
Hong Kong) is because we simply didn’t have enough hospital
resources to cope in the surge. And unfortunately, that is what
is going to happen in about one to two months time in the
mainland," Cowling said.
He said a surge in severe cases coupled with a surge of mild
cases among the elderly who needed monitoring overwhelmed Hong
Kong's hospitals, and recommended separate isolation facilities
for the elderly with mild cases to free up hospital beds.
State media Xinhua reported on Tuesday in capital
Beijing 50 patients are currently in a serious or critical
condition in hospital with COVID.
'WHAT A MESS'
The sudden loosening of restrictions has sparked long queues
outside fever clinics since last week in a worrying sign that a
wave of infections is building, even though official tallies of
new cases have trended lower recently as authorities eased back
on testing.
Some hospitals in Beijing have up to 80% of their staff
infected, but many of them are still required to work due to
staff shortages, a doctor in a large public hospital in Beijing
told Reuters, adding he has spoken to his peers at other big
hospitals in the capital.
All operations and surgeries have been cancelled at his
hospital unless the patient is "dying tomorrow", he said,
declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject.
A post on the Weibo social media platform recounted a
recent experience at the emergency ward at Beijing Hospital.
"Those who have not been to the emergency department of
Beijing Hospital don't know what a mess it has become," wrote a
Weibo user called Moshang. The post went on to say that people
in serious need of surgery were being made to wait.
Beijing Hospital did not immediately respond to a Reuters'
request for comment.
Wan Ling, a head nurse at a hospital in Huashan in China's
Anhui province, wrote on Weibo that many of her infected
colleagues were relatively serious and had high fever.
Several doctors from Wuhan province's top public hospital
Tongji have also tested positive for COVID-19, but since Sunday
have not been allowed to take leave, a pharmaceutical sales
representative with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters,
declining to be named, as the information is not public.
"They have to stay at work while they are sick," said the
person who regularly visits the hospital and spoke to its
doctors recently.
Tongji hospital did not immediately respond to a Reuters
request for comment.
(Reporting by the Beijing newsroom, David Stanway and the
Shanghai newsroom, Julie Zhu and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Writing
by Farah Master; Editing by Miyoung Kim & Simon Cameron-Moore)
((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 3462 7709;))