While the number of corona19 infections in China is exploding, an expert's diagnosis has been made that about 70% of the residents of Shanghai, the 'economic capital', may have already been infected.
According to the Hong Kong Mingbo today (4th), Chen Erzhen, vice director of the Ruijin Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University Medical School, said in an interview with the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, "The current epidemic is so widespread that 70% of Shanghai's population may have already been infected. can," he said.
"This is 20 to 30 times larger than when Shanghai was locked down for two months last spring," he added.
Shanghai's population is about 25 million, 70% of which is around 17.5 million.
Shanghai closed the entire city in April and May of last year as the number of corona19 infections increased.
At that time, more than 600,000 people were confirmed and close to 600 died.
Deputy Director Cheon said, "Currently, the number of patients visiting our hospital's fever clinic has decreased from an average of 600 to 100 per day, but the number of emergency room patients has recently doubled to 1,600 per day." About half of them are high-risk, vulnerable groups such as the elderly. Severely ill patients account for 10%," he said.
"In response to this, we increased the number of treatment rooms in the emergency room from four to eight and placed additional medical staff from other parts in the emergency room," he added.
He said he was also infected with Corona 19, but his symptoms were mild.
Previously, Beijing's infection rate may have already exceeded 80%, Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on the 29th of last month.
Beijing's population is about 22 million.
The number of infections is also increasing rapidly in Zhejiang Province, which is adjacent to Shanghai.
The previous day, the Zhejiang Provincial Health Authority predicted that the number of corona19 confirmed cases per day is reaching about 1 million, and the infection will peak by the end of this month.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ruijin Hospital researchers estimate that the wave of COVID-19 infections will pass before the Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) on the 22nd in cities like Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqin and Chengdu.
However, it was expected that a much larger wave of infections would sweep through rural areas after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong customs authorities announced the previous day that they had cracked down on checkpoints in the border area with China for six days until the 1st, and found smuggling of COVID-19-related medicines worth a total of 940,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 150 million won), including antipyretic and analgesics. It is.
A total of 3,900 items were confiscated, including Lianhua Qingyuan, a traditional Chinese flu treatment, painkillers, antipyretics, rapid antigen kits, antipyretic patches, and thermometers.
Authorities in Hong Kong said they inspected three checkpoints along the border with China, found these smuggled drugs in five trucks bound for China, and arrested five drivers.
As Corona 19 medicines are in short supply in China, related medicines are stocked and sold out in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore.
On the 2nd, the Hong Kong pharmaceutical industry revealed that 70% of Corona 19-related drug purchasers appear to be buying for relatives and acquaintances in China.
In Hong Kong, as the number of confirmed cases rises and falls by 20,000 a day since the middle of last month, local pharmacies have begun to limit purchases per person for cold medicines in the New Year.
(Photo = Getty Image Korea)