WHO ‘very concerned’ at Covid surge in China as cases soar – but Beijing claims no new deaths

Beijing reports no new deaths despite drug shortages and queues at crematoriums

An elderly resident is vaccinated against Covid in Zhongmin village near Shanghai on Wednesday (Reuters)

A huge Covid surge in China is causing worldwide alarm – just as the country changes the way it records the virus, claiming zero deaths on Wednesday despite drug shortages and queues at crematoriums.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is “very concerned over the evolving situation ... with increasing reports of severe disease”, said its director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Cases have soared across the country after the ruling communist regime abandoned its zero-Covid policy in the wake of huge protests, loosening restrictions and ending the requirement for daily PCR tests.

Anecdotally, many people have fallen ill in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Reuters reported that a queue of about 40 hearses had been seen waiting to enter a crematorium in Beijing’s Tongzhou district, and that there was a heavy police presence outside the crematorium.

Meanwhile, an Associated Press reporter saw multiple people being wheeled out of funeral homes in the city last week, and two relatives said their loved ones had died after testing positive for Covid.

On Wednesday, China reported no new Covid deaths – and in fact subtracted one death from the overall toll, lowering it to 5,241, without offering an explanation.

The country’s National Health Commission this week announced that only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients with the virus are being classified as Covid deaths.

Benjamin Mazer, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University in the US, said that the new classification would miss “a lot of cases”, especially as those who are vaccinated are less likely to die of pneumonia.

A patient is turned away from a full emergency unit in Zhuozhou, northern China, on Wednesday (AP)

Blood clots, heart problems, and sepsis – an extreme response to infection – have caused countless deaths among Covid patients around the world.

“It doesn’t make sense to apply this sort of March 2020 mindset where it’s only Covid [-related] pneumonia that can kill you,” Prof Mazer said. “There’s all sorts of medical complications.”

The death toll might rise sharply in the near future, with the state-run Global Times newspaper reporting that a Chinese respiratory expert has predicted a spike in severe cases in Beijing over the coming weeks.

Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, who sits on a WHO committee tasked with advising on the status of the Covid-19 emergency, questioned whether the global community is truly post-pandemic “when such a significant part of the world is actually just entering its second wave”.

She added: “It’s clear that we are in a very different phase [of the pandemic], but in my mind, that pending wave in China is a wild card.”

Some US and European officials have offered to help mitigate a crisis they fear will hurt the global economy and disrupt supply chains. From the centre of the epidemic in northern China, infections are spreading to manufacturing belts, including the Yangtze River delta near Shanghai, and disrupting workforces.

Chinese people queue for medication in Beijing on Wednesday amid the Covid surge (EPA)

Retail businesses and financial services have been hit hard by staff shortages, with factories not far behind, industry bodies say.

China is still largely cut off from the outside world, with Covid restrictions still in place in respect of international travel, but there are signs that these rules too are easing.

Chelsea Xiang, 35, said she had only needed to undertake two days of quarantine in the southwestern city of Chengdu after returning from Hong Kong on Sunday, rather than the minimum of five officially required.

“I feel I have my human rights again,” Ms Xiang said.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media was reporting a renewed vaccination drive among the vulnerable, such as the over-60s, and those in rural areas.

And in India, the government has asked states to keep a sharp lookout for any new variants of Covid in response to the Chinese wave. “Covid is not over yet,” health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday, after a government meeting at which masks were worn.