In more than three decades of emergency medicine, Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein said, he has never seen anything like this.
Patients are arriving at his hospital in ever-increasing numbers; almost all are elderly and many are very unwell with COVID and pneumonia symptoms, he said.scrambling to cope
Sonia Jutard-Bourreau, 48, chief medical officer at the private Raffles Hospital in Beijing, said patient numbers are five to six times their normal levels, and patients' average age has shot up by about 40 years to over 70 in the space of a week.The patients and their relatives visit Raffles because local hospitals are "overwhelmed", she said, and because they wish to buy Paxlovid, the Pfizer-made COVID treatment, which many places, including Raffles, are running low on.
Elsewhere in China, medical staff told Reuters that resources are already stretched to the breaking point in some cases, as COVID and sickness levels amongst staff have been particularly high. Wang and nurses at other hospitals said they had been told to report for duty even if they test positive and have a mild fever.
The National Health Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the concerns raised by medical staff in this article.
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