Since China announced its changes to COVID-19 policies, many Western media outlets have painted a dire picture of the country. A main thread they are using is that China’s medical system is on the verge of collapse and that the Chinese are left to wither in the wind.
Here’s a reality check to three fallacies of China’s COVID-19 response.
Fallacy 1: Chinese hospitals are overwhelmed
China has a population of more than 1.4 billion. Higher number of people requesting medical attention is natural following the COVID-19 policy change. And China had prepared for it.
China’s National Health Commission stated on December 26 that China has established a resource-allocating system to deal with the situation. Grassroots medical institutions are tasked with health monitoring, especially towards the vulnerable population. Secondary hospitals provide technological and personnel support to the grassroots institutions to satisfy regular medical demands. Tertiary hospitals would focus on treating severe and critical cases.
In China, there are more than 16,000 hospitals of medium size and above. The number of fever clinics in grassroots medical institutions totaled 41,000, as of December 25, 2022. According to China’s Bureau of Medical Administration, the national occupancy rate of beds for severe cases had reached the 80 percent mark, as of December 30, 2022.
Within hospitals, medical personnel from different departments have been aiding the Respiratory Department to tend to surging demand. Many cities and provinces with high-population density such as Beijing, Chongqing, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Sichuan Province have reported that they’ve passed the peak of infections and are seeing fewer patients visiting hospitals.
Fallacy 2: China’s medicine production lagging behind
In December, 2022, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the supply for medicines for key locations were prioritized. Large pharmacies have been mobilized to develop online platforms to facilitate medicine delivery to patients.
Zhou Kai, the General Manager of the Northeast Pharmaceutical Group, said that “thanks to help from the central government in coordinating with the suppliers, our paracetamol output can now match demand for the coming three months nationwide.” The paracetamol produced by the company sells for only 0.1 yuan per tablet.
The Shandong Xinhua Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is the world’s leading producer of ibuprofen materials. Its tablet capacity has been raised threefold, and its ibuprofen production has surpassed 10,000 tablets a minute.
Fallacy 3: Chinese people are left unattended
There are about 1.1 billion netizens in China. To deal with the rising demand for medical attention, China’s National Health Commission issued a notice on December 12 to expand online medical services for COVID-19 patients.
In Shandong Province, the Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital opened its online fever clinics for the first time on December 16. 128 online consultations were recorded on December 17. And by Dec 22, the number reached 757. Yin Shaohua, the director of the hospital’s outpatient department, said that the online clinics can help reduce cross-infection and meet patients’ needs for diversified medical care.
On January 7, the National Healthcare Security Administration and three other departments issued a joint document to optimize medical insurance policies to ease the financial burden of COVID-19 patients. It stipulated that all COVID-19 patients will receive subsidies from state finance for hospitalization expenses not covered by basic medical insurance, serious disease insurance or the medical assistance fund if they are admitted before April 1, 2023.
Patients covered by medical insurance can have no less than 70 percent of their fees generated from outpatient and emergency COVID-19 infection treatment at designated medical institutions reimbursed as of March 31.
