China Battling A Massive Wave Of Covid Infections

Patients line up for treatment at the emergency department of Beijing Chaoyang hospital, amid the coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, China December 27, 2022 

 Daily Mail: China's 'elite are stockpiling Pfizer's Covid drug' as country battles huge wave of fresh infections that has left hospitals overflowing with patients after abandoning Zero Covid 

* Basic medicines and Paxlovid Covid treatment are extremely difficult to obtain 

* Hospitals in densely populated Chinese city's are inundated with Covid patients 

* Rural areas are quickly ramping up medical facilities ahead of New Year holiday 

* Countries around the globe are implementing testing for Chinese travellers 

China's abrupt lifting of many of its tough pandemic restrictions earlier this month has allowed the virus to spread rapidly in a country where most people have little access to treatment.  

Spiraling infections have led to shortages of cold medicine, long lines at fever clinics, and at-capacity emergency rooms turning away patients.   

Beijing city authorities plan to distribute the oral Covid drug Paxlovid at local hospitals and community clinics, but the drug - a combination of antivirals nirmatrelvir and ritonavir produced by Pfizer - remains extremely difficult to obtain for ordinary people.  

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WNU Editor: My friends in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian province) are telling me that the health care system has broken down. 

There are no official public numbers on how many are sick and how many have died, but the estimates that are being reported by outside organizations are huge .... China COVID deaths accelerate to 9,000 a day - UK research firm Airfinity (Reuters).  

Update: This is the big worry now .... Experts Weigh Risk of New COVID Mutations from China (VOA).