BEIJING: China’s thinly resourced countryside is racing to beef up medical facilities before millions of factory workers return home for the Lunar New Year holiday next month from cities where COVID-19 is surging.
Having imposed the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and relentless testing for three years, China reversed course this month towards living with the virus, leaving its fragile health system overwhelmed.
The lifting of restrictions, following widespread protests against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people a day, according to some international health experts.
China officially reported one new COVID death for Wednesday, down from three on Tuesday, but foreign governments and many epidemiologists believe the numbers are much higher, and that more than 1 million people may die next year.
Each year, hundreds of millions of people, mostly working in factories near the southern and eastern coasts, return to the countryside for the Lunar New Year, which starts on Jan. 22.
The holiday travel rush is expected to last for 40 days, from Jan. 7 to Feb. 15, authorities said.
The state-run China Daily reported that rural regions were beefing up their medical capacities.
It said a hospital in a rural part of Inner Mongolia where more than 100,000 people live was seeking bidders for a 1.9-million-yuan ($272,308) contract to upgrade wards into intensive care units.
