Amid China’s official zero Covid-10-related deaths for the second consecutive day, an expert has claimed that there are several body bags lined up at a hospital in the country. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, has tweeted a video purportedly showing bodies lined up at a hospital. In his tweet, Eric Feigl-Ding said the oxygen tanks are empty and there’s a shortage of blood and fever medicines. He also claimed that deaths due to Covid-19 are soaring among the elderly.
China is grappling with its first-ever national Covid-19 wave. In a stark reminder of the second Covid-19 wave in India, intensive care units (ICUs) are turning away ambulances, relatives of sick people are searching for open beds, and patients are slumped on benches in hospital corridors and lying on floors for a lack of beds. Amid this, China’s official record says there have been “zero Covid-19 deaths”.
Retweeting a tweet that shows bodies lined up seemingly at a hospital as China grapples with a severe Coid-19 wave, Eric Feigl-Ding said the worst is yet to come.
“Overflowing hospital morgues—Fever meds shortage, oxygen tanks EMPTY, 🏥 overwhelmed, blood shortage, death tolls soaring among elderly ==>lots of body bags—even at a top Beijing hospital too. Worsening #COVID19 yet to come. But still 0 official deaths,” Eric Feigl-Ding said.
Eric Feigl-Ding said even top-level hospitals in Beijing have run out of beds and oxygen tanks. “And I want to remind folks that Beijing has some of the best hospitals in 🇨🇳. And yet, at this “top tier level A” hospital, they still ran out of beds and oxygen tanks. This story is harrowing—patient died in 15 minutes of ICU arrival,” he said.
The Chinese government has reported only seven Covid-19 deaths since restrictions were loosened dramatically on December 7, bringing the country’s total toll to 5,241. On Tuesday, a Chinese health official said that China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official Covid-19 death toll.
Experts have forecast between a million and 2 million deaths in China next year, and the World Health Organisation warned that Beijing’s way of counting would “underestimate the true death toll.”
(With agency inputs)
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