China is expecting a peak in COVID infections within a week, a health official said, with authorities predicting extra strain on the country's health system even as they downplay the disease's severity and continue to report no new deaths
Infections in China are likely to be more than a million a day with deaths at more than 5,000 a day, a "stark contrast" from official data, British-based health data firm Airfinity said this week.half of the commercial hub's 25 million people would get infected by the end of next week. Experts say China could face more than a million COVID deaths next year.
More than a dozen global health experts, epidemiologists, residents and political analysts interviewed by Reutersto vaccinate the elderly and communicate an exit strategy to the public, as well as excessive focus on eliminating the virus, as causes of the strain on China's medical infrastructure. A drive to vaccinate the elderly that began three weeks ago has yet to bear fruit. China's overall vaccination rate is above 90% but the rate for adults who have had booster shots drops to 57.9%, and to 42.3% for people aged 80 and older, according to government data.
China spent big on quarantine and testing facilities over the past three years rather than bolstering hospitals and clinics and training medical staff, these people said. "There is an incredible lack of preparation for the virus coming despite them having ... ample warning," said Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases doctor at Rophi Clinic in Singapore.The country has nine domestically developed COVID shots approved for use, all seen as less effective than Western-made vaccines that use the new mRNA technology.
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