China is witnessing a record surge of Covid-19 cases nationwide brought on by the Omicron strains. It is by far the country’s biggest outbreak since the pandemic began in the central city of Wuhan three years ago in 2019.


Hospitals, pharmacies and crematoriums also have been struggling amid heavy demand.


A Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein told Reuters, “The hospital is just overwhelmed from top to bottom,” at the end of a “stressful” shift at the privately owned Beijing United Family Hospital in the east of the capital.


“The ICU is full,” as are the emergency department, the fever clinic and other wards, he said.


The Covid situation in China worsened after the Chinese authorities abruptly lifted its zero-Covid policy this month, which included nationwide lockdowns, strict quarantine measures and mass testing, following protests across the country over its heavy economic and social toll.


Here are the key points-



  • China on Monday announced that it will re-open its borders to the rest of the world after being shut for nearly three years. It will also drop quarantine requirements for all passengers arriving from outside of the country starting from January 8, 2023.
     

  • Additionally, the commission stated that the Covid-19 management would be demoted from Class A to B category disease, in the same category as less-severe diseases such as Dengue fever, as of the next month. According to officials, Omicron variations were not as deadly as the Delta strain, which claimed a significant number of lives around the world.


  • Amidst the rising cases in the country, Beijing will begin distributing Pfizer’s Covid-19 drug Paxlovid to the city’s community health centers in the coming days.


  • China's National Health Commission (NHC) has stopped publishing daily Covid-19 data, amid doubts about their reliability as infections have exploded in the wake of an abrupt easing of zero-Covid-policy.


  • Reports suggest that the sudden surge in cases is causing blood shortages at hospitals across multiple provinces and cities in China. A Bloomberg report has stated that the Blood Center of Shandong Province has told China National Radio that it has issued red alert warnings for insufficient inventory for two blood types in recent days.


  • The eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang is reportedly battling around a million new daily Covid-19 infections, the provincial government reported on Sunday.