An enormous wave of COVID infections is straining China's medical facilities.
Chen Erzhen, a top administrator at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital who also serves on the city's COVID advisory board,
Chinese state media that he estimates up to 70% of Shanghai — with a population of around 26 million — had been infected.28% of the more than 500 Chinese travelers who arrived in Taiwan on Jan. 1 tested positive.Clinging to the zero-COVID approach was not the most effective solution, Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Axios.
Chinese authorities spent an enormous amount of money trying to keep out the virus when that money would have been better spent on obtaining better vaccines and treatments and expanding intensive care units, Huang said., as some Western commentators recently have. "Xi very likely is going to muddle through the crisis," Huang said. "The virus will soon peak" and an economic recovery will follow, while the government is already redefining the narrative to deflect blame, he added.Millions of people will soon be heading home for the Lunar New Year later this month, likely spreading COVID even further around the country — and most worryingly to rural areas with little health care infrastructure.
On Jan. 8, China will also end mandatory entry quarantine and open its borders to outsiders for the first time in almost three years.
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