Germany sends vaccines to China as concern over massive Covid surge grows
China is witnessing a massive spike in cases and could face more than a million Covid deaths next year, days after dismantling its zero Covid policy. The situation is concerning as China’s Covid vaccines haven’t been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variants that is driving the case load across several countries, including Japan and Brazil.
On Wednesday, Germany dispatched a batch of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine to China, where it will be administered to Germans who live in the country. The Chinese government formally informed Berlin in a diplomatic note that German citizens can be inoculated with the vaccine, which otherwise isn’t cleared for use in China, AP reported.
After widespread protests, the country of 1.4 billion people this month began dismantling its unpopular zero-Covid lockdown and testing regime, which largely kept the virus under control for three years, though at great economic and psychological cost.
CHINA BEHIND THE CURVE
But now, China’s official Covid figures have become unreliable as the country stopped mass testing when it discontinued zero Covid policy. On Wednesday, WHO’s emergencies director Mike Ryan said, “In China, what’s been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up.”
“I wouldn’t like to say that China is actively not telling us what’s going on. I think they’re behind the curve,” he added.
LONG WAIT FOR CREMATION
Some residents in Beijing face waiting days to cremate relatives or paying steep fees to secure timely services, funeral home workers said, indicating a growing death toll, Reuters reported.
Ever since China relaxed stringent Covid curbs, there has been a surge in residents looking to cremate deceased relatives, leading to queues and delays.
‘2020 MINDSET’
The World Health Organisation or WHO said that it is very concerned over the evolving situation in China and it needs more detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and requirements for intensive care units for a comprehensive assessment.
“WHO is supporting China to focus its efforts on vaccinating people at the highest risk across the country, and we continue to offer our support for clinical care and protecting its health system,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
China uses a narrow definition of Covid deaths and reported no new fatalities on Tuesday. Only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as COVID deaths.
Benjamin Mazer, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University, told Reuters that people who are vaccinated are less likely to die of pneumonia and this classification would miss a lot of Covid cases.
“It doesn’t make sense to apply this sort of March 2020 mindset where it’s only Covid pneumonia that can kill you,” Mazer was quoted as saying by Reuters.
BF.7 VARIANT
BF.7, a sub-lineage of the BA.5 Omicron variant, is driving the Covid surge in China. The BF.7 variant is reportedly more infectious than the other variants of coronavirus known so far.
Experts are predicting at least three waves of the infection hitting the country in the next few months. Hospitals and morgues are reportedly flooded and pharmacies are running out of medicines as the tracking of virus gets difficult amid massive surge in China and elsewhere.
