afp
Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday December 17, 2022, p. eleven
Peking. Workers at crematoriums in Beijing said yesterday that their establishments are overwhelmed by the unprecedented wave of covid-19 cases in China that, according to the authorities, will soon reach rural areas.
The epidemic is spreading rapidly through the Asian country, a week after most of the sanitary restrictions in force for almost three years were lifted.
The authorities admit that it is now impossible
count the number of cases.
We cremate 20 bodies a day, mainly the elderly. Many people recently got sick
explained to the Afp agency an employee of a crematorium. Of the 60 who work here, more than 10 are positive for covid, but we have no choice since there is a lot of work
he added.
The workers of two other funeral homes in Beijing, contacted by Afp, indicated that their establishments are operational 24 hours a day, offering cremation services the same day to respond to the strong demand. Another center of this type indicated that its waiting list is One week.
However, the official figures do not include any deaths related to covid-19 since December 4.
The anti-covid organization urged local governments to increase surveillance and medical care for people returning to their homes in rural areas ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays in January.
The event causes the largest population displacement in the world every year. It is expected that this time it will be even higher, since travel restrictions between provinces have been lifted.
Chinese state media and health experts downplay the danger of the omicron variant, and respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan has proposed changing the name of covid to virus cold
.
Yet millions of older people have not been vaccinated, and antigen tests and anti-fever medications are in short supply.
On social networks, several videos of patients with covid, sitting on stools outside crowded hospitals and receiving saline solution infusions, went viral.
The global balance of the pandemic so far is 6,664,236 deaths and 652,533,965 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University.
