Several Chinese cities rushed to set up hospital beds and build testing centers on Tuesday as authorities reported five new deaths from COVID-19.
This month, China began easing its strict “zero-COVID” lockdown and testing policy after fierce public protests.
Now, in a country of 1.4 billion people without natural immunity, the virus is spreading, and concerns are growing about the potential scale of deaths, mutations in the virus and the impact on business and trade.
Beijing on Tuesday reported five COVID-19-related deaths, after two fatalities were reported Monday, the first in weeks.
Overall, China has reported 5,242 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic broke out in downtown Wuhan in late 2019, a very low number by global standards.
Attacked hospitals
But doubts are growing about the accuracy of statistics on the disease’s impact after China scrapped restrictive measures, including most mandatory tests, on December 7.
Since then, some hospitals have been under siege, pharmacies have seen their drug stocks empty, while many people have self-imposed lockdowns, straining distribution services.
Some health experts estimate that 60% of people in China – equivalent to 10% of the world’s population – could be infected in the next few months and more than 2 million could die.