The deluge of mostly mild cases has strained health resources and triggered widespread confusion after zero-COVID was abruptly abandoned.
Coronavirus hotlines are overwhelmed in Beijing, hospitals are running out of beds in Guangzhou and medical facilities in Hebei province are relying on one-third of their staff to keep them running. COVID-19 is running rampant throughout China.
The panic is being partly driven by the government’s own messaging. The Chinese Communist Party spent the best part of 36 months telling its citizens to be terrified of the virus – a year longer than most other governments – as it ruthlessly pursued its zero-COVID strategy. Feng told Tsinghua University students last week that COVID was no longer being spread by imported infections from overseas – Beijing’s dominant narrative throughout the pandemic.
Feng acknowledged the confusion caused by the updated guidelines which have meant that medical workers who have been identified as close contacts have had to go into isolation, triggering staff shortages across the system.
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