Incidents of COVID-19 infection are experiencing a resurgence in mainland China, due to a new variant that evades immunity. Despite this, cases have been trivialized and treated as common colds by healthcare professionals, according to recent reports from Chinese citizens on social media and comments made by doctors to The Epoch Times.
The intensity of cases has notably increased since mid-August and the infection is recurring in individuals who had previously had the disease, even for the second or third time in some instances. A doctor in Chongqing, a southwestern megacity, stated to The Epoch Times in late August that COVID-19 positive cases are now reported daily, a stark contrast to the intermittent cases of the past few months.
Patients seem to be exhibiting similar, if not worse symptoms during reinfection. A resident of Tianjin reported that they have been re-infected and the severity of the symptoms has remained unchanged. The infection started as a sore throat which eventually escalated to cause kidney pain and widespread joint pain.
The head of the Department of Respiratory Infection in Beijing was reportedly infected, further affirming the highly contagious nature of the virus. Furthermore, patients who have been infected but are yet to confirm their status through nucleic acid testing are treated for the common cold despite the considerably higher contagiousness of COVID-19.
The Chinese healthcare system downgraded COVID-19 to a ‘Class B’ infectious disease back in January, and consequently, outpatient clinics no longer conduct PCR testing. As a result, robust epidemic data is now lacking which has led to difficulty differentiating between fevers caused by the common cold and those triggered by more serious conditions. The numbers presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have thus lost relevance. Moreover, there is presently no treatment manual for COVID-19 infections instigated by EG.5, the latest variant which evades immunity.
EG.5, alternatively known as Eris, is now the leading coronavirus subvariant in numerous provinces across mainland China. According to a statement from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on social media, ‘the participation of the EG.5 variant among circulating coronavirus strains escalated from 0.6 percent in April to 71.6 percent in August.’ A subvariant of Omicron XBB.1.9.2, Eris was first detected in Indonesia in February and is currently present in a minimum of 52 countries, a situation that led the World Health Organization (WHO) to categorise it as a ‘variant of interest.’
Sadly, the governing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seems to be paying little heed to this resurgence. The adoption of the zero-COVID restriction and lockdown strategy was abruptly abandoned last December and has been followed by large-scale outbreaks and resultant fatalities. Public health measures or precautions have remained absent despite the resurgence of cases. In fact, onlookers, like current affairs commentator Li Yuanhua, believe that this indicates the regime’s preference for political strategy over public health. In his view, the CCP is treating this medical crisis with a political attitude that prioritises its regime stability over the well-being of its citizens. Experts have lambasted this approach, pointing to its high cost in terms of the loss of human lives.
Source: https://www.ntd.com/chinese-hospitals-treat-covid-19-infections-as-common-cold-while-cases-surge_939841.html