Described as a kind of pneumonia, the toll of its spread in China remains unclear due to Beijing’s tight control of information.
We spoke to a few Chinese residents and here’s what they told us.
In northern Liaoning province, a worker in the health supplement field said he’s seen a surge in death cases in hospitals there, but noted information about it is being censored.
“Don’t look at the official numbers. Now there’s a spike in death cases in local hospitals. [The number of] dead bodies in mortuaries this year would for sure surpass that of last year,” Chen, a health supplement industry worker in Liaoning Province, said.
In Anhui province, a taxi driver said hospitals in the area are crowded with patients. He added that locals—including doctors— suspect that COVID-19 is making a comeback.
“Doctors in my local hospitals said there are many patients with “white lung,” maybe 10 out of every hundred,” Liu Ming (pseudonym), a taxi driver in Anhui province, said.
White lung refers to the way pneumonia patients’ lungs appear on CT scans. It’s caused when the lungs fill with fluid due to the infection.
“[The doctor] said some of his coworkers’ children also developed the symptoms. He said they usually have after-effects. And those who failed to recover have died. The information about the death toll is censored in China,” Mr. Liu said.
A resident in Shanghai also described deaths linked to the outbreak.
“I’ve also heard of cases that have died from the unknown pneumonia. But news like that is strictly censored, hospitals won’t tell you anything,” Wang, a resident in Shanghai, said.
A traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in Shandong told NTD that he’s seen recent death cases, too.
Saying patients middle-aged or older have died from the outbreak.
“They died of heart attacks or brain infractions triggered by the virus,” Yang, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in Shandong Province, said.
Chinese authorities are reintroducing certain COVID-19 prevention measures.
In Beijing, COVID testing measures are making a quiet comeback to a state building in the heart of the city. The Chinese regime uses the venue for lawmaking activities and ceremonies.
A conference related to China’s textile industry was held there on Dec. 6. A document from the industry association said the venue would require a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of entry.
Similar control measures are also reportedly appearing in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
What’s more, China’s education ministry published a health notice. It urges schools nationwide to educate students on how to prevent COVID-19 infections—plus other winter-time illnesses.