English
COVID warning: Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist has reported that after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, China is experiencing a massive surge in coronavirus cases and hospitals are completely overwhelmed in China. According to an estimate of Eric Feigl-Ding, more than 60 per cent of China and 10 per cent of Earth’s population are likely to be infected over the next 90 days with the death count likely to be in “millions”.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that one of Beijing’s designated crematoria for COVID-19 patients has been “flooded with dead bodies” in recent days as the virus sweeps through the Chinese capital, offering an early hint at the human cost of the country’s abrupt loosening of pandemic restrictions.
The epidemiologist and health economist (Eric Feigl-Ding) says the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) goal is “let whoever needs to be infected, infected, let whoever needs to die, die. Early infections, early deaths, early peak, early resumption of production”.
China has reported no Covid deaths in Beijing since the authorities announced four deaths between November 19 and 23. The information office for China’s cabinet, the State Council, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent late on Friday
Beijing Dongjiao Crematory, on the eastern edge of the Chinese capital, has experienced a jump in requests for cremation and other funerary services, according to people who work at the compound, reported WSJ. “Since the Covid reopening, we’ve been overloaded with work,” said a woman who answered the phone at the crematorium on Friday, adding, “Right now, it’s 24 hours a day. We can’t keep up.”
The woman said Dongjiao Crematory, which is operated by Beijing municipality and which the National Health Commission has designated to handle Covid-positive cases, was receiving so many bodies that it was conducting cremations in the predawn hours and in the middle of the night. “There’s no other way,” she said.
She estimated that there were roughly 200 bodies arriving each day at the crematorium, from 30 or 40 bodies on a typical day.
The increased workload has taxed the crematorium staff, many of whom have become infected with the fast-spreading virus in recent days, she said.
Men who work at the compound, which in addition to a funeral hall includes a small complex of shops selling burial attire, flowers, caskets, urns, and other funerary items, said the number of corpses had risen markedly in recent days, though none would offer an estimate of the magnitude of the increase, reported WSJ.
“Doubling time in China may not be days anymore. Doubling time now possibly ‘hours’ says some experts — let that sink in. R is hard to calculate if doubling is less than 1 day because it’s hard to PCR test that fast. The point is China and the world is in deep trouble,” said Feigl-Ding.
Moreover, the deaths in mainland China are being hugely underreported. According to a survey of hospitals, funeral parlors, and related funeral industry chains in Beijing–there is a recent explosion in funeral services caused by the sharp increase in deaths.
According to the epidemiologist, “The cremation in Beijing is nonstop. Morgues are overloaded. Refrigerated containers needed. 24/7 funerals. 2000 bodies backlogged for cremations. Sound familiar? It is spring 2020 all over again– but this time for China, emulating more Western-mass infection approach.”
(With agency inputs)
