Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with Covid-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country's wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics
China this month has rapidly dismantled key pillars of its zero-Covid strategy, doing away with snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and travel curbs in a jarring reversal of its hallmark containment strategy.
A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao on Friday reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing"between 490 000 and 530 000" new Covid cases a day. China's National Health Commission said on Saturday that 4 103 new domestic infections were recorded nationwide the previous day, with no new deaths.
Most government-run publications have downplayed the severity of the country's exit wave, instead depicting the policy reversal as logical and controlled. More than 18 000 Covid patients had been admitted to major medical institutions in the province in the two weeks up to Thursday, including nearly 500 severe cases but no deaths, the statement said.There were signs that medical resources remained under stress as the weekend began, as some regional health officials warned that the worst was yet to come.
The bureau also published a video showing patients connected to intravenous drips queuing outside a clinic, and a doctor sleeping on his desk after working late into the night for several days straight.
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