Medical, Funeral Services in China Overwhelmed as COVID Cases Soar

Health workers move a COVID-19 patient on a stretcher in the emergency ward of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University in China's southwestern city of Chongqing on Dec. 22, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

Medical services in China are being overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, with one doctor saying the corridors of his Beijing hospital are full of sick people while more people are lining up outside seeking treatment.

“There are so many COVID-infected people now that the hospital corridors are full of patients,” Yang Yun (pseudonym), a doctor at the Fangshan District Hospital, told the Epoch Times on Dec. 23.

“It’s cold, and patients are lining up outside,” the doctor said.

Many of those lining up are seeking assistance because they are unable to access medicine.

“Even those who arrive at the hospital in ambulances could not be treated immediately since ambulances have to queue as well,” he said.

“The nurses and doctors are also overwhelmed as they have to work nonstop even when they and their families are positive for COVID.”

A patient with COVID-19 lays on a bed in a hallway at Tangshan Gongren Hospital in China's northeastern city of Tangshan on Dec. 30, 2022. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

With the crowded conditions in hospitals, doctors and nurses in hospitals are also becoming infected en masse.

The overcrowding of hospitals also impacts the treatment of seriously ill patients.

Zero-COVID U-Turn

China’s sharp increase in COVID-19 follows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suddenly switching from its zero-COVID policy to a full reopening without any preparations.

The subsequent rise in infections across the country has led to soaring prices for common cough and fever medicines while medical oxygen supplies have been snapped up.

Funeral services are being overwhelmed with reports of crematoriums also having long queues.

Amid this, the authorities have been censoring news on COVID-19.

Beijing Dongjiao Funeral Services issued an emergency notice on Dec. 19, strictly prohibiting any staff to accept any interviews from the press and strictly prohibiting discussions, data leaks, and photos on social media, according to a screenshot on Chinese social media.

Due to the strain, funeral services have been experiencing staffing shortages.

Shanghai Binhai Guyuan, a suburb in Shanghai, has called on CCP members and cadres to support the front-line work of three funeral services that have been struggling so to cope with the steep rise in demand. Party members have also been asked to help with receiving and storing dead bodies since the morgues are all full.

A coffin is loaded from a hearse into a storage container at the Dongjiao crematorium and funeral home, one of several in the city that handles COVID-19 cases, in Beijing on Dec. 18, 2022. Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Chinese Center for Disease Control reported in its Dec. 25 report that the cumulative number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic nationwide was only 5,241—a figure strongly disputed by the public.

“The CCP says that only a few thousand people have died. How is that even possible?” asked Hong Da (pseudonym), a resident of Beijing’s Fengtai district, in a phone interview with The Epoch Times on Dec. 27.

“I said in my WeChat a few days ago that it takes at least a week to cremate a body in Beijing, and my WeChat account was suspended. Now the waiting time for cremation is even longer,” Hong said.

“It can take more than a month. There is no space to store the bodies anymore, so they are using freezers that are supposed to be for frozen pork. This is a fact,” Hong said.

“Can they hide it forever? The CCP is an authoritarian regime that does not allow people to speak the truth.”

Recent official announcements indicate that the CCP is working hard to play down the severity of the recent outbreak.