Many children in mainland China who are exhibiting high fevers, coughs, and even “white lung” symptoms have flooded hospitals and infected other members of their families, according to Chinese media reports and posts on social media.
Based on the reported symptoms, authorities’ lack of transparency, and the lack of press freedom in China, suspicions point to another outbreak of COVID-19.
Online Chinese news outlet Hongxing News, which belongs to the Chengdu city government, reported that the pediatric outpatient area of Hangzhou First Hospital was already full early on Oct. 17.
While Director of Pediatrics Dr. Jiang Chunming told local media that in the past two months, the volume of pediatric outpatients had been about 1,000 per day, as of last weekend, the number of outpatient visits reached 1,800 to 1,900.
The wards were full, leaving many children waiting to be admitted.
Dr. Jiang cited a case as an example: A 10-year-old child developed symptoms of repeated coughing and fever. He came to the pediatric clinic on the 12th day of his illness.
“The examination found small black cavities in the white areas of the lungs and partial lung necrosis,“ Dr. Jiang said. ”The patient was finally diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia.”
Beijing is witnessing a period of high incidence of “mycoplasma” pneumonia, which is expected to reach its peak in November, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated on Oct. 12.
“The hospital is fully booked and there are a lot of patients, all suffering from mycoplasma pneumonia, mainly children,” a doctor at Henan Children’s Hospital told The Epoch Times on Oct. 20.
He said that if a child develops a high fever, he or she should be brought to a hospital’s emergency department immediately to get a CT scan, because many children now have developed “white lungs” or even lung necrosis.
“Now, many people are having colds and fevers,“ Mr. Li, a primary school teacher in Shanghai, told The Epoch Times. ”There are more than 40 students in my class, but only a dozen come to school. Several children of my relatives also have fevers, and the adults are also infected. Children infect adults, and whole families become infected.”
At about 9 a.m. local time on Oct. 20, a doctor at Hunan Children’s Hospital told The Epoch Times that the hospital was already full and that all the appointments for the day had been booked.
Many children have symptoms of “white lung,” the doctor said.
“There are no beds in the hospital now, and people need to wait in line for beds. It takes three or four days to be admitted to the hospital,” he said.
A pediatrician in Zhengzhou said in a video posted on Chinese social media that she treated more than 100 patients—mostly children, many of whom had “white lungs”—in the outpatient clinic in one day on Oct. 16.
New Names for COVID-19
After the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suddenly abandoned its draconian zero-COVID policy and restrictive control measures in December 2022, mainland China experienced a massive COVID-19 outbreak, killing countless people, including a large number of elderly people who developed “white lungs” before their deaths.
However, many Chinese residents say the new names refer to ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19.
Even late at night, there are still long lines of people waiting to be treated in emergency rooms. Because the hospitals are full, many patients have received IV (intravenous) treatment in hospital lobbies or in the halls.
Dr. Yu, a mainland Chinese pediatrician, posted a video on social media, saying “In addition to children over 5 years old, babies and adults are also infected, so this year’s epidemic of pneumonia is particularly serious.”
COVID-19 was originally called “Wuhan pneumonia” in China, due to its symptoms when it first broke out in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in late 2019.
Mr. Li, a primary school teacher in Shanghai, believes that the “mycoplasma pneumonia” that’s spreading is the renamed COVID-19.
“Isn’t COVID-19 pneumonia also infecting people in the early stages? We now call it a cold because there is no way to detect whether it is COVID-19. The symptoms are like colds, such as runny nose, headache, fever, sore throat,” he said.
Ms. Zhou, a middle school teacher in mainland China, also said that everyone believes that “mycoplasma pneumonia” is COVID-19.
She said that some children in her school who developed “white lungs” were being treated with the antibiotic azithromycin. This medicine has since sold out and is currently out of stock.
