China's recent COVID-19 crisis has highlighted Beijing's healthcare gaps, which has forced families to burn the bodies of their deceased loved ones in the streets as the number of fatalities continues to rise.
The Asian nation has understaffed and underfunded clinics standing half-empty in parts of the countryside even as hospitals in major cities heave under an unprecedented COVID wave. It has shown a glaring disparity in the country's healthcare system.
China's COVID-19 Crisis
In the past two weeks, visits by AFP journalists have shown a sharp difference in the demand for urban and rural hospitals in several parts of northern China. The situation comes as many in the countryside head to big cities for a quality of care that they would simply not be able to get from hospitals closer to their homes.
China's centralized healthcare system drives money and resources toward urban hospitals but comes at the expense of rural clinics. This disparity has become even more intense as COVID-19 cases in the country continue to surge, as per the Bangkok Post.
In Beijing, China's capital, and the northern megacity of Tianjin, emergency wards have become so overwhelmed that several dozens of mostly elderly patients have been accommodated on gurneys in public areas.
The patients were crammed shoulder to shoulder while gasping for breath and many of whom were hooked up to intravenous drips or oxygen tanks while machines monitored their vital signs. A few of the people found there appeared to be unconscious or unresponsive.
On the other hand, in the neglected rural town of Xin'an, the sparsely equipped local hospital was operating well below full capacity. There were around half a dozen elderly people inside a poorly heated room near reception who were huddled in thick overcoats that were seen with drips protruding from their arms.
Disparities in Healthcare Demand
According to Fox News, on the other hand, a hospital in Beijing has already run out of beds that has forced patients to rest on stretchers or lay on the hallway floors. In a statement, a healthcare worker in Beijing Chaoyang Hospital's emergency room said that they had no beds, no oxygen, and had rooms full of sick people waiting to be treated.
The situation comes as Chinese authorities watched as COVID-19 cases spiked following the rollback of the nation's "zero-COVID" policy after mass protests against the draconian protocols. The abrupt shift occurred without any increase in vaccinations, resulting in the rapid decline of health and safety.
Chinese officials instead opted to bolster hospitals in anticipation of a new COVID-19 surge by establishing hundreds of "fever clinics" to increase testing. However, the hospitals were not prepared for just how many more cases the wave ended up causing, with the Chuiyangliu hospital in eastern Beijing getting new arrivals and was unable to properly sequester them on Jan. 5.
The new wave has also prompted logistics managers to warn clients that because of the rise in infections, factories are unable to complete orders. This comes even though the United States manufacturing orders from China have already gone down by 40% due to an unrelenting demand collapse, CNBC reported.
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