Chinese hospitals under strain in Covid wave – Saudi Gazette

Chinese hospitals under strain in Covid wave – Saudi Gazette

BEIJING — China's hospitals are already under so much pressure, following the country's rapid 180-degree shift in Covid policy that doctors and nurses could be infecting patients.

It seems frontline medical workers are being told to come in even if they have the virus themselves because of staff shortages.

A Chinese professor specializing in health policy has been monitoring the crisis in his home country from Yale University in the United States.

Chen Xi told the BBC that he has been speaking to hospital directors and other medical staff in China about the massive strains on the system right now.

"People who've been infected have been required to work in the hospitals which creates a transmission environment there," he said.

China's hospitals have hastily increased their fever ward capacity to meet a huge influx of patients, but these have been filling up quickly, in part because the message is still getting through that it is all right to stay at home if you catch the virus.

Prof Chen says much more needs to be done to explain this to people.

"There is no culture of staying at home for minor symptoms," he said. "When people feel sick they all go to hospitals, which may easily crash the