China braces for Covid outbreaks among medical staff and migrant workers
Chinese health authorities have raised concerns about Covid-19 outbreaks among frontline medical staff and migrant workers returning home during the lunar new year holiday, as inadequately prepared rural areas could be overwhelmed by the virus.
“One of our biggest challenges is how hospitals cope with a surge in infections among doctors and nurses,” a health official in Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province, told the Financial Times.
The official, who asked not to be identified, added that infections among health workers were “an important factor” in a decision last month by officials in Shijiazhuang, the capital of northern Hebei province, to reverse a shortlived experiment with looser “zero-Covid” controls.
The FT was unable to independently verify reports of an outbreak in Baoding.
The eased testing requirements have raised questions about the reliability of the daily tally of Covid cases from China’s National Health Commission, which reported 27,847 new infections on Tuesday for the day prior.
Baoding is located in Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing and has a population of 75mn. The province reported just 184 new infections on Tuesday.
Reporting by Sun Yu in New York, Qianer Liu in Hong Kong, Xinning Liu in Beijing and Tom Mitchell in Singapore
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Tom Mitchell
