Experts warn of three winter waves, China struggles for hospital beds as COVID surges

Digital Desk: China is detecting an upsurge in Covid cases after lifting its severe Covid-19 safeguards, raising concerns around the world. A top Chinese health official said he believes China is experiencing the first of three projected waves of Covid infections this winter, the BBC reported. 

At a time when the spike in Covid cases in China has overwhelmed hospitals, the health authorities are hurrying to create hospital beds and build fever screening centres. There are rising concerns the virus is buffeting China's weak health system.

Reportedly,  a gym in Beijing's Shijingshan area was turned into a fever clinic late last week, with cubicles containing more than 150 beds spanning a basketball court. 

As reported by Global Times, several Chinese cities are investing in developing intensive care units and other medical facilities. The health authorities are hurrying to create fever clinics, facilities where medical experts examine patients' symptoms and dispense drugs. 

As shown by government WeChat accounts and media reports, major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Wenzhou announced the addition of hundreds of fever clinics in the last week.

As per the Associated Press, China's health authorities confirmed two Covid deaths on Monday, the country's first reported fatalities in weeks. With half of China's population still unvaccinated, there is growing concern about possible mortality, virus mutations, and the economic consequences. 

On Tuesday, Beijing reported five Covid-related deaths, following two on Monday, which were the first fatalities in weeks. 

China is urging elderly and reluctant citizens to be vaccinated. The elderly are more likely to experience severe Covid symptoms.

Meanwhile, health officials have been tight-lipped about the virus's threat in recent weeks, reversing past messaging that the virus needed to be eradicated to save lives even as the rest of the world opened up. Schools in Shanghai and several other epidemic cities have been shuttered for the next month because to the rapid increase of cases.

According to Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, hospitals in China are entirely overcrowded. Feigl Ding warned that the current wave of coronavirus in China may likely infect over 60 per cent of the country's population in the next 90 days, with death toll expected to soar to millions.

The virus's spread is projected to limit China's economy, which is expected to rise by 3% this year, its least effective performance in over a half-century. According to a World Economics survey released on Monday, China's business confidence plummeted in December to its lowest level since January 2013.