A hospital in Shanghai warned its staff to prepare for a “tragic battle” as COVID spreads across China largely unrestricted. Following mass protests against continuing lockdowns, Beijing scrapped large parts of its “zero-COVID” policy, which in turn is feared to have put major pressure on the country’s health system. Some international observers worry that Chinese state COVID figures have also become unreliable due to a drop-off in testing after the policy change. Beijing logged no new COVID deaths on Wednesday for a second consecutive day despite anecdotal reports of ICUs filling up and queues of hearses outside crematoriums. “This year’s Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day, and the Lunar New Year are destined to be unsafe,” the private Shanghai Deji Hospital posted on its official WeChat account late Wednesday, estimating that half of the city’s 25 million people would be infected by the end of next week. “In this tragic battle, the entire Greater Shanghai will fall, and we will infect all the staff of the hospital! We will infect the whole family! Our patients will all be infected! We have no choice, and we cannot escape.” The post was unavailable as of Thursday morning.
