Residents of China are panic-buying and stockpiling in anticipation of a winter COVID-19 wave as lockdown restrictions are being lifted around the country.
As part of a larger trend away from some of the world’s most strict COVID-19 policies in the wake of widespread protests, the ruling Chinese communist party said today that it would discontinue reporting asymptomatic COVID-19 instances with mass testing no longer being required.
Chinese People Swarm Pharmacies For Medications
However, because of the sudden rise in the number of new diseases, newly liberated citizens have swarmed stores and pharmacies, buying up all the available stocks of antiviral drugs, pain relievers, and other basic medicines.
There are long wait times at fever clinics in the Chinese capital, and pharmacies are running low on essentials due to the outbreak. The rapid antigen tests are completely sold out all over town and on the internet.
Additionally, Chinese government statistics have not been independently validated, and it has been questioned whether the ruling Communist Party has tried to downplay the true severity of the problem.
There appears to be a directive going out to frontline medical staff that they should report to work regardless of whether or not they are symptom-free.
Meanwhile, China’s hospitals have hurriedly expanded their fever ward capacities to accommodate a massive inflow of patients, but they are already reaching capacity. This is in part because the word that it is okay to stay at home if you catch the virus is still not getting through.
Read more: New bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines Have Been Approved By The FDA For Infants As Young As Six Months
China COVID-19: Hospitals Strained by Surge of Illnesses
Across the country, there are severe shortages of cold and flu medication due to the influx of customers at pharmacies. COVID-19 home testing kits are similarly difficult to come by.
To put this in context, consider that only a few weeks ago the government was insisting that zero-Covid would be strictly enforced, that affected people would be sent to centralized quarantine centers, and that lockdowns would be implemented.
There was reason to be concerned about the coronavirus, but ordinary Chinese people have nothing to worry about because the Communist Party will not give up their lives on the altar of opening up.
Since the government no longer cares about bringing each outbreak back to zero cases, COVID-19 is rapidly expanding. Moreover, it was anticipated that China would gradually loosen limitations on COVID-19.
Read more: Covid-19 Is Not Yet Over: CDC Reveals Spike in Deaths, New Cases
