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Zhenzhen Liu

In two weeks, the biggest annual human migration on Earth will begin for the Lunar New Year, lasting about 40 days.
Travel platforms such as Qunar.com have predicted a surge in trips throughout China that could reach 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels.
But as hundreds of millions of people prepare for a long-awaited return home, worries are growing that the waves of Covid-19 infections sweeping China’s big cities will overwhelm smaller urbans centres and rural areas.
In these areas, health systems tend to be more fragile, leaving many more people vulnerable to the dire consequences of mass infections.
Morgues overwhelmed: why China’s new Covid crisis is all of its own making
Rural health systems will confront an “extraordinarily severe” situation during the holiday because they are weak, and many elderly people have underlying diseases, according to a document circulating online and quoting National Health Commission chief Ma Xiaowei.
The document, said to be a memo of an NHC meeting on Wednesday, could not be independently verified.
Beijing has urged rural hospitals to set up more fever clinics and coordinate medical resources to prevent and prepare for the expected waves of infections in the countryside, according to a guideline released earlier this month.


Guo Wanshen, deputy director of Henan’s health commission, said he was concerned about widespread infections in rural parts of the province, where 42 per cent of Henan’s nearly 100 million residents live.
In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV, Guo said the spread of Covid-19 in rural Henan had been “generally lagging behind that in the urban areas”. But with the coming holiday travel period and further adjustments to the national Covid policy, more regions would face a “rapid increase”.
“We will step up monitoring areas with bigger outbreaks … surveillance and allocation of medical resources such as the number of beds, especially in grass-roots areas,” he said.
Guo said a campaign was also continuing to get every eligible elderly person vaccinated against Covid-19.
Chinese scientists highlight challenge of explaining work to public
Yang Dongliang, head of a township health centre in the Henan city of Zhumadian, said about 200 patients presented at the township’s fever clinics each day, 10 times the previous volume. The biggest challenges were shortages of medical supplies and staff in the hospital, he said.
“We only give fever medicine to people who have a temperature over 38.5 degrees Celsius (101.3 degrees Fahrenheit),” Yang said, according to CCTV.
In the southwest province of Sichuan, Gao Xia, head of a health centre in Yaan, said her hospital began planning ahead some time ago.
“Our hospital has prepared contingency plans according to the [national] policy shift, and the medication stock for upper respiratory colds, such as ibuprofen and Tylenol, can meet the demand at the moment,” Gao Xia said.


Still, some areas are yet to feel the intense health pressures from the impending holiday season.
Yu Hongmin, a migrant worker in Dalian who comes from a rural county in the northeast province of Heilongjiang, said she was told the hospitals in her hometown were operating “as normal”, and there were more than enough medical supplies.
Yu said her family had just sent her a pack of antigen tests from her hometown, which had been generally out of stock in Dalian.
“Covid situations vary significantly in different regions,” Yu said. “What I can do is prepare as much as I can.”


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Coronavirus China

As Covid rages, is rural China ready for the biggest travel surge in years?

In two weeks, China will begin its biggest travel season in years, and health specialists are worried about the threat from Covid. Photo: AP

Morgues overwhelmed: why China’s new Covid crisis is all of its own making

Covid-19 patients on stretchers in the emergency ward of a hospital in Chongqing, in China’s southwest, on Thursday. Photo: AFP

China turns to online help as Covid outbreaks swamp health facilities

With China’s healthcare system under siege, Covid-19 patients are turning to online medical consultations. Photo: Reuters

Beijing’s Covid wave may have peaked but China’s tsunami of cases is months from easing: experts

Medical workers are seen outside a fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing on Friday as the city battles a wave of cases. Photo: Reuters

A delivery worker walks in a near-empty shopping area in Beijing on Friday. Photo: Bloomberg

The winter solstice is a Chinese festival more important than Lunar New Year – why that is, and other big dates on the solar calendar

A family enjoys dinner for the winter solstice in Mong Kok, in Hong Kong. We take a look at why the winter solstice is a bigger deal than Lunar New Year. Photo: Edmond So

People pay their respects to their ancestors during Ching Ming at the Diamond Hill cemetery in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Photo: Sam Tsang

“Grain in ear” specifies that wheat has ripened. Photo: Getty Images

Speed skaters at an outdoor rink in Beijing, China. “Slight snow” and “great snow” announce the arrival of the snowy season. Photo: Getty Images

People buying food at a wet market in North Point, Hong Kong, to prepare for the winter solstice. Photo: Sam Tsang

Jacky Chung Chi-keung is the executive Chinese chef of Yue in the Sheraton Hong Kong Tung Chung Hotel on Lantau Island. Photo: Sheraton Hong Kong

Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners in Beijing, China. They time their treatments according to the terms of the lunisolar calendar. Photo: Getty Images

The White Pagoda in Beihai Park is pictured from a pavilion under the winter solstice sun in Beijing. Photo: Simon Song

News

China

Science

Coronavirus

Greater China


Ahead of the Lunar New Year, worries mount over infections spreading to the countryside
Health systems outside major centres face ‘extraordinarily severe’ situation, according to purported NHC memo



Worries are mounting of rapidly spreading Covid infections ahead of the country’s annual 40-day travel period.


As Covid rages, is rural China ready for the biggest travel surge in years?

Ahead of the Lunar New Year, worries mount over infections spreading to the countryside Health systems outside major centres face ‘extraordinarily severe’ situation, according to purported NHC memo

Ahead of the Lunar New Year, worries mount over infections spreading to the countryside

Health systems outside major centres face ‘extraordinarily severe’ situation, according to purported NHC memo