sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
Pictures are on tweet stream.
Dake Kang
@dakekang
1/China is facing a medical emergency. Two harrowing days in Hebei’s ICUs shows the area’s hospitals are buckling with the spread of COVID. We saw ambulances turned away from hospitals, relatives frantically searching for beds, patients sprawled on floors
apnews.com
Packed ICUs, crowded crematoriums: COVID roils Chinese towns
BAZHOU, China (AP) — Yao Ruyan paced frantically outside the fever clinic of a county hospital in China’s industrial Hebei province, 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Beijing. Her mother-in-law...
2:25 AM · Dec 24, 2022
2/This is Langfang No. 4 People’s Hospital in Bazhou, Hebei on Thursday. The ICU was in utter chaos when we visited. The ward was packed with patients on ventilators; lines of people seeking medicine; doctors wheeling gurneys to and fro
12h
3/There were no beds, and doctors were frantically sending critical patients to other hospitals. But even as ambulance after ambulance departed for other wards, car after car with more critical patients came, flooding the hospital
12h
3/There were no beds, and doctors were frantically sending critical patients to other hospitals. But even as ambulance after ambulance departed for other wards, car after car with more critical patients came, flooding the hospital
12h
4/The ICU was so packed patients lay on the floor for a lack of beds.
11h
5/Lines for CT scans
11h
6/We saw patient after patient getting wheeled out into ambulances, even as more and more patients flooded in. “We have no beds!” a harried nurse told me.
11h
7/Even amid the pandemonium, some told us they were at the ICU for only mild symptoms. It illustrates a point public health experts make: Many in China are unusually reliant on hospitals for even basic medical care, making ICUs vulnerable to being overwhelmed.
11h
8/The villages and towns here in central Hebei are far more vulnerable to COVID than first tier cities like Beijing or Shanghai because of their poor medical system. Any shock could “crash the system”, as noncritical patients take resources from those who need it the most
Quote Tweet
Dake Kang
@dakekang
·
Dec 15
3/However, the real challenge will be in the countryside. In rural areas, the healthcare infrastructure is far poorer. @xcyale says that some counties lack a single ICU bed, raising concerns about where elderly patients with COVID will seek treatment.
11h
9/We met desperate people from the countryside driving hospital to hospital, looking for beds for their loved ones. Because there was no ICU capacity near their hometowns, they had to drive hours to bigger cities - wasting precious time. But now, even in cities, there are no beds
11h
10/Yao Ruyan was in tears when we spoke. She spent hours hunting for a bed for her sick mother-in-law - but nurses told her there were none. I’m furious,” she said. “I don’t have much hope. We’ve been out for a long time & I’m terrified b/c she’s having difficulty breathing.”
4,453 views
0:02 / 0:10
11h
11/Here’s a small manifestation of how this works - patients tending to go to bigger cities for critical care. This sign is encouraging them to stay: ”看病不用去北京 北京专家来看你” “No need to go to Beijing to see a doctor, Beijing specialists will come and see you”
11h
12/Looks can be deceiving. On the surface, normal life looks to be resuming here in the Baoding area, one of the first cities in China to be hit by the virus. But enter the ICUs, and it’s a different story.
11h
13/Even fever clinics are not a good guide for the situation. We saw mostly empty fever clinics, and nurses said the lines had subsided. But ask further, and you’ll realize that the clinics only take mild patients and issue medicine - anyone in serious condition goes to the ICU
·
1h
14/I made a mistake by only going to fever clinics early in the outbreak. In Beijing last week, fever clinics seemed fine, and in Hebei, they're empty. But it's ICU wards that are key. Overrun ICUs = more deaths, not just for COVID patients, but for all
Quote Tweet
Dake Kang
@dakekang
·
Dec 13
1/Visited several fever clinics in Beijing. I saw short, orderly lines, and no signs yet of overcrowding. If the medical system here can hold up for the next couple of weeks, Beijing might just make it through without a large number of fatalities, which would be a huge relief.
·
1h
15/At Baoding No. 2 Hospital in Zhuozhou, I saw ambulances turned away because the ICU was packed. “There’s no oxygen or electricity in this corridor! If you can’t even give him oxygen, how can you save him?” a medical worker said. “If you don’t want any delays, turn around!”
1h
16/So the patient was wheeled right back into the ambulance and whisked away. To where exactly is unclear, given that all the ICUs in the area appear to. be overwhelmed.
2h
17/Such an ambulance might go to Beijing, just an hour or two away. But reporting from us and other outlets indicate the wave is hitting Beijing, too, at full blast, even though the capital has some of the best medical resources in the country.
Quote Tweet
Dake Kang
@dakekang
·
Dec 16
1/COVID-linked deaths are appearing in Beijing, even as China hasn’t reported a single death from COVID since December 4. The relatives of two people who died at the Dongjiao funeral home said their loved ones had positive for the virus. https://apnews.com/article/health-bu...adb9dc247a3…
Show this thread
1h
18/(recommend here
@rwmcmorrow
and Nian Liu's reporting over at FT on this subject - they've been doing lots of great, on-the-ground reporting: https://ft.com/content/18f5d2f4-8695-499c-be37-1d5eb8f81329…)
ft.com
‘We have no beds, we have no oxygen’: Covid overwhelms Beijing’s hospitals
China’s coronavirus exit wave overwhelms one of the country’s best healthcare systems
1h
19/Last week, it was widely reported that crematoriums in Beijing are overwhelmed with bodies. It brings me no pleasure to say that we found the same situation in central Hebei. One crematoriums we visited was working overtime to burn many more bodies than usual
1h
20/A crematorium official, Ma Xiaowei (yes, same name as the NHC director), said he doesn't know if there's COVID deaths, as he goes by what's on death certificates; none list COVID. But he denied COVID was causing more deaths, attributing it instead to the weather turning cold.
1h
21/But at his crematorium, we discovered a *Beijing resident who caught COVID and died in Beijing* was being cremated in Gaobeidian, a two hour drive from the capital. Why? “Too many people died in Beijing, they said we’d have to wait for 10 days," her grandson told us.
·
1h
22/The authorities are clearly anxious about this wave of COVID hospitalizations and deaths. On the second day, we were greeted by Hebei gov't publicity officials, who followed us. They were, in fact, very polite and helpful, arranging interviews and treating us to dinner.
1h
23/But some of the officials they arranged for us to speak with were extremely anxious, and what they said didn't match the reality on the ground at all. One hospital official claimed that there was no "explosion in cases" even as Chinese media itself was reporting them.
1h
24/He only allowed us to shoot photos of the hospital's empty fever clinic, but refused to let us take pictures of the hospital or allow us anywhere near the ICU ward. Remember, fever clinics treat only milder cases - they refer serious ones to the ICU
52m
25/In Baigou, a town of 60,000, COVID appears to have peaked. Doctors are back at work after from COVID, and a hospital we visited was quiet. However, serious COVID cases can't be handled there, because they don't have good ICU capacity, like many small towns in China
53m
26/There's challenges, too, with vaccination. An Baigou hospital official there was quite chatty with us, and told us candidly that very few elderly were getting vaccinated for COVID at her hospital - because they were scared they'd catch COVID there.
53m
27/"Honestly, we don't really recommend it," she said. Anecdotally, another vaccination point I saw in Beijing was empty. I've heard stories of elderly who now want the shot, but are scared of going out to get it - an example of how the zero COVID U-turn took many by surprise.
49m
28/The area we visited - Baoding in central Hebei - was one of the first hit by COVID after the government loosened controls. I was more optimistic before this trip, but what I saw scared me. Sadly, it could be a grim harbinger of what's to come in the rest of the country.
Dake Kang
@dakekang
1/China is facing a medical emergency. Two harrowing days in Hebei’s ICUs shows the area’s hospitals are buckling with the spread of COVID. We saw ambulances turned away from hospitals, relatives frantically searching for beds, patients sprawled on floors
apnews.com
Packed ICUs, crowded crematoriums: COVID roils Chinese towns
BAZHOU, China (AP) — Yao Ruyan paced frantically outside the fever clinic of a county hospital in China’s industrial Hebei province, 70 kilometers (43 miles) southwest of Beijing. Her mother-in-law...
2:25 AM · Dec 24, 2022
2/This is Langfang No. 4 People’s Hospital in Bazhou, Hebei on Thursday. The ICU was in utter chaos when we visited. The ward was packed with patients on ventilators; lines of people seeking medicine; doctors wheeling gurneys to and fro
12h
3/There were no beds, and doctors were frantically sending critical patients to other hospitals. But even as ambulance after ambulance departed for other wards, car after car with more critical patients came, flooding the hospital
12h
3/There were no beds, and doctors were frantically sending critical patients to other hospitals. But even as ambulance after ambulance departed for other wards, car after car with more critical patients came, flooding the hospital
12h
4/The ICU was so packed patients lay on the floor for a lack of beds.
11h
5/Lines for CT scans
11h
6/We saw patient after patient getting wheeled out into ambulances, even as more and more patients flooded in. “We have no beds!” a harried nurse told me.
11h
7/Even amid the pandemonium, some told us they were at the ICU for only mild symptoms. It illustrates a point public health experts make: Many in China are unusually reliant on hospitals for even basic medical care, making ICUs vulnerable to being overwhelmed.
11h
8/The villages and towns here in central Hebei are far more vulnerable to COVID than first tier cities like Beijing or Shanghai because of their poor medical system. Any shock could “crash the system”, as noncritical patients take resources from those who need it the most
Quote Tweet
Dake Kang
@dakekang
·
Dec 15
3/However, the real challenge will be in the countryside. In rural areas, the healthcare infrastructure is far poorer. @xcyale says that some counties lack a single ICU bed, raising concerns about where elderly patients with COVID will seek treatment.
11h
9/We met desperate people from the countryside driving hospital to hospital, looking for beds for their loved ones. Because there was no ICU capacity near their hometowns, they had to drive hours to bigger cities - wasting precious time. But now, even in cities, there are no beds
11h
10/Yao Ruyan was in tears when we spoke. She spent hours hunting for a bed for her sick mother-in-law - but nurses told her there were none. I’m furious,” she said. “I don’t have much hope. We’ve been out for a long time & I’m terrified b/c she’s having difficulty breathing.”
4,453 views
0:02 / 0:10
11h
11/Here’s a small manifestation of how this works - patients tending to go to bigger cities for critical care. This sign is encouraging them to stay: ”看病不用去北京 北京专家来看你” “No need to go to Beijing to see a doctor, Beijing specialists will come and see you”
11h
12/Looks can be deceiving. On the surface, normal life looks to be resuming here in the Baoding area, one of the first cities in China to be hit by the virus. But enter the ICUs, and it’s a different story.
11h
13/Even fever clinics are not a good guide for the situation. We saw mostly empty fever clinics, and nurses said the lines had subsided. But ask further, and you’ll realize that the clinics only take mild patients and issue medicine - anyone in serious condition goes to the ICU
·
1h
14/I made a mistake by only going to fever clinics early in the outbreak. In Beijing last week, fever clinics seemed fine, and in Hebei, they're empty. But it's ICU wards that are key. Overrun ICUs = more deaths, not just for COVID patients, but for all
Quote Tweet
Dake Kang
@dakekang
·
Dec 13
1/Visited several fever clinics in Beijing. I saw short, orderly lines, and no signs yet of overcrowding. If the medical system here can hold up for the next couple of weeks, Beijing might just make it through without a large number of fatalities, which would be a huge relief.
·
1h
15/At Baoding No. 2 Hospital in Zhuozhou, I saw ambulances turned away because the ICU was packed. “There’s no oxygen or electricity in this corridor! If you can’t even give him oxygen, how can you save him?” a medical worker said. “If you don’t want any delays, turn around!”
1h
16/So the patient was wheeled right back into the ambulance and whisked away. To where exactly is unclear, given that all the ICUs in the area appear to. be overwhelmed.
2h
17/Such an ambulance might go to Beijing, just an hour or two away. But reporting from us and other outlets indicate the wave is hitting Beijing, too, at full blast, even though the capital has some of the best medical resources in the country.
Quote Tweet
Dake Kang
@dakekang
·
Dec 16
1/COVID-linked deaths are appearing in Beijing, even as China hasn’t reported a single death from COVID since December 4. The relatives of two people who died at the Dongjiao funeral home said their loved ones had positive for the virus. https://apnews.com/article/health-bu...adb9dc247a3…
Show this thread
1h
18/(recommend here
@rwmcmorrow
and Nian Liu's reporting over at FT on this subject - they've been doing lots of great, on-the-ground reporting: https://ft.com/content/18f5d2f4-8695-499c-be37-1d5eb8f81329…)
ft.com
‘We have no beds, we have no oxygen’: Covid overwhelms Beijing’s hospitals
China’s coronavirus exit wave overwhelms one of the country’s best healthcare systems
1h
19/Last week, it was widely reported that crematoriums in Beijing are overwhelmed with bodies. It brings me no pleasure to say that we found the same situation in central Hebei. One crematoriums we visited was working overtime to burn many more bodies than usual
1h
20/A crematorium official, Ma Xiaowei (yes, same name as the NHC director), said he doesn't know if there's COVID deaths, as he goes by what's on death certificates; none list COVID. But he denied COVID was causing more deaths, attributing it instead to the weather turning cold.
1h
21/But at his crematorium, we discovered a *Beijing resident who caught COVID and died in Beijing* was being cremated in Gaobeidian, a two hour drive from the capital. Why? “Too many people died in Beijing, they said we’d have to wait for 10 days," her grandson told us.
·
1h
22/The authorities are clearly anxious about this wave of COVID hospitalizations and deaths. On the second day, we were greeted by Hebei gov't publicity officials, who followed us. They were, in fact, very polite and helpful, arranging interviews and treating us to dinner.
1h
23/But some of the officials they arranged for us to speak with were extremely anxious, and what they said didn't match the reality on the ground at all. One hospital official claimed that there was no "explosion in cases" even as Chinese media itself was reporting them.
1h
24/He only allowed us to shoot photos of the hospital's empty fever clinic, but refused to let us take pictures of the hospital or allow us anywhere near the ICU ward. Remember, fever clinics treat only milder cases - they refer serious ones to the ICU
52m
25/In Baigou, a town of 60,000, COVID appears to have peaked. Doctors are back at work after from COVID, and a hospital we visited was quiet. However, serious COVID cases can't be handled there, because they don't have good ICU capacity, like many small towns in China
53m
26/There's challenges, too, with vaccination. An Baigou hospital official there was quite chatty with us, and told us candidly that very few elderly were getting vaccinated for COVID at her hospital - because they were scared they'd catch COVID there.
53m
27/"Honestly, we don't really recommend it," she said. Anecdotally, another vaccination point I saw in Beijing was empty. I've heard stories of elderly who now want the shot, but are scared of going out to get it - an example of how the zero COVID U-turn took many by surprise.
49m
28/The area we visited - Baoding in central Hebei - was one of the first hit by COVID after the government loosened controls. I was more optimistic before this trip, but what I saw scared me. Sadly, it could be a grim harbinger of what's to come in the rest of the country.