Elderly Covid-19 patients fill hospital wards in major Chinese cities

Chongqing, China —

Elderly patients lined hospital wards in major Chinese cities on Thursday as the country battled a wave of COVID-19 cases.

The virus has surged across the vast Asian country in an outbreak officials say is impossible to trace after the end of compulsory mass testing.

And as cases surge, Washington has asked Beijing to share its COVID outbreak data, saying China’s case numbers will impact the world.

In the emergency department of a hospital in central China, an elderly man infected with COVID-19 lay moaning on a stretcher, attached to a breathing tube under a pile of blankets.

An ambulance worker at the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, who confirmed the old man was a COVID patient, said the old man picked up more than 10 people a day, 80% to 90% of whom were infected with the coronavirus. .

“Most of them are elderly,” he said. “There are many positive people in the hospital staff, but I have no choice but to continue working.”

The old man waited half an hour to receive treatment, but in a nearby room, AFP saw another six people in sick beds, surrounded by frantic doctors and relatives.

They were also mostly elderly, and when asked if they were all COVID patients, the doctor replied, “Basically.”

Five were on ventilators and had obvious respiratory distress.

Millions of elderly people across China are still not fully vaccinated, raising concerns that the virus could kill masses of the most vulnerable citizens.

But under new government guidelines, many of these deaths are not due to COVID.

The corridors of Shanghai’s emergency department were lined with stretchers full of elderly people chained to oxygen cylinders.

An AFP reporter counted at least 15 such patients spilling out of the ward into the corridor.

Wrapped in colorful duvets, they wheezed feebly through their masks as medical personnel attended to them. Many seemed largely unresponsive.

“Impacts not limited to China”

As Beijing scrambles to contain the outbreak, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday called on China to share information about the COVID crisis as Washington renewed its offer to share America’s vaccine.

“It is very important for all countries, including China, to focus on getting vaccinated, making testing and treatment available, and importantly, sharing information with the world about what they are going through. Because it’s not just for China, it’s for the whole world,” Brinken said at a press conference.

At a large crematorium on the outskirts of Chongqing, there was a long line of cars waiting for a parking space on the property on Thursday.

As funeral gongs sounded and mourners burned incense, dozens of bereaved people walked in groups, some holding wooden urns.

A middle-aged man with an urn told AFP that an elderly relative had died after testing positive for the virus.

“I’m always busy these days,” said the crematorium driver, smoking a cigarette in his car. “He works more than 10 hours a day with very few breaks in between.”

Another staff member wearing a face shield agreed.

“The bodies cannot be refrigerated. They must be cremated the same day,” he said.

On Thursday night, about 20 hearses lined the road to another crematorium in the south of the city.

There was a large parking lot inside, and corpses on stretchers were lowered onto a small hill and transferred to the upper floors.

AFP confirmed that about 40 bodies were loaded onto the platform in two hours.

Next to the raised floor were two rooms of refrigerator-freezers. In one case, AFP found his two bodies covered in stretchers and another partially uncovered body on the floor.

Police and security guards patrolled the premises.

“He died too early”

A constant stream of cars carrying mourners arrived at another building where families were taking wakes.

Some relatives watched through glass as their loved ones were cremated in the next room.

A woman in her 20s told AFP she suspected her father had died of COVID, although he had not been tested.

“He died too soon on the way to the hospital,” she sobbed. “He originally had lung problems…he was only 69.”

Another mourner said a relative died of pneumonia, but was unsure if it was caused by COVID.

“He wasn’t feeling well, so I took him to the clinic the day before yesterday, but the hospital wouldn’t accept him,” he said.

One woman said an elderly relative who had been suffering from cold symptoms had tested negative but died because she couldn’t get an ambulance in time.