China says no new Covid deaths, but crematoriums ‘overwhelmed’ | Top points

While reports and social media posts claim that hospitals in China are struggling, pharmacy shelves have been stripped bare and many crematoriums are overwhelmed, China on Wednesday said “no one had died of Covid-19 the previous day”, after changing the criteria such that most virus deaths are no longer counted.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, said it was "very concerned" about the new wave of cases.

China is reportedly seeing a massive spike in Covid-19 cases after a sudden decision to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing recently.

China's zero-Covid policy and lockdown measures have kept death and infection rates minimal over the past months but caused massive disruptions both domestically and in global trade and supply chains.

China had recorded a total of seven deaths - all in Beijing - since its decision to lift its zero-Covid policy, but removed one death from its official tally Wednesday.

Top updates on Covid wave in China:

1. Dozens of hearses queued outside a Beijing crematorium on Wednesday, even as China reported no new Covid-19 deaths in its growing outbreak, sparking criticism of its virus accounting as the capital braces for a surge of cases, news agency Reuters reported.

Also Read: Concerns over Omicron subvariant BF.7; Centre's Covid advice | Top 10 points

2. Amid a heavy police presence outside a crematorium in Beijing's Tongzhou district, a Reuters witness saw about 40 hearses queuing to enter while the parking lot was full. Inside, family and friends, many wearing traditional white clothing and headbands of mourning, gathered around about 20 coffins awaiting cremation. Staff wore hazmat suits and smoke rose from five of the 15 furnaces. Reuters could not verify whether the deaths were caused by Covid.

3. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency needed more detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and requirements for intensive care units for a comprehensive assessment. "The WHO is very concerned over the evolving situation in China, with increasing reports of severe disease," he said.

4. German government confirmed it has sent its first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates. China has nine domestically developed Covid vaccines approved for use. But none has been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant, as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have for boosters in many countries.

5. Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert from Peking University First Hospital, told the state-run Global Times that Beijing will face a surge in cases over the next two weeks, which will continue until the end of January.

6. According to health officials, Chinese cities are currently hit by highly transmissible Omicron strains, mainly BA.5.2 and BF.7, which are spreading like wildfire. Beijing is hit by the BF.7 variant of the Omicron virus, stated to be the fastest spreading coronavirus, causing havoc in the capital whose hospitals are overcrowded.

7. Many Chinese pharmaceutical companies are operating at full capacity to meet rocketing demand for cold and fever medicines, according to official media reports.

8. The Guardian reported that across major cities people appear to be staying inside, either with the virus or in fear of contracting it.

9. Chinese workers with mild Covid are being told to go back to work in some cities, reported Bloomberg. Government workers in the western metropolis of Chongqing were told to continue working if they were asymptomatic or experiencing mild Covid symptoms, authorities said at the weekend.

10. Some 60 per cent of factories across the industrial hubs of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shandong plan to send workers for longer vacation around the end of this month, as they wait for new orders to come in in the new year.

(With inputs from agencies)