E-Paper
China changes isolation policy amid its worst Covid outbreak
The decision was taken to maximise hospital resources as China scrambles to contain the worst and widest Covid-19 outbreak since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019
China on Wednesday reported 3,290 Covid-19 cases for the day earlier, as embattled health authorities said that those with mild infections should opt for centralised isolation instead of a hospital as was the rule until now.
The decision was taken to maximise hospital resources as China scrambles to contain the worst and widest Covid-19 outbreak since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
Cases fell by half in the past 24 hours though health authorities across China continued to implement strict lockdown measures impacting millions of people and carried out repeated mass tests on residents at sealed off locations.
The northeastern province of Jilin, which borders Russia and North Korea and is the epicentre of the ongoing outbreak, continued to be the worst hit. It recorded 1,456 locally transmitted symptomatic cases, making up 60% of total cases for the past 24 hours.
The province’s infections have also halved compared to a day earlier, but it still logged over a thousand new cases for the fourth consecutive day with an official describing the battle to stamp out the outbreak as having entered a “critical stage”.
“Over a dozen other provincial-level regions also saw new locally-transmitted Covid-19 infections, including Beijing, the capital, with nine cases,” the National Health Commission (NHC) said in its report on Wednesday.
China, meanwhile, has modified its Covid-19 hospitalisation and isolation rules amid the surge in cases to avoid straining the country’s health care system.
The NHC said patients with no symptoms or only mild ones should go to centralised isolation facilities and only those with severe symptoms should be admitted to designated hospitals.
The change in rule – hospitalisation was earlier mandatory for positive Covid-19 patients – is a rare acknowledgment that the current policy of mandatory hospitalisation for all positive patients could overwhelm hospitals amid surging cases.
“The change is in response to the majority of cases involving the dominant Omicron strain being asymptomatic or only showing mild symptoms,” the state-run China Daily reported Wednesday. 1,860 of the more than 3,000 cases were symptomatic.
“As most do not need much treatment, admitting those with mild cases to designated hospitals will take up medical resources unnecessarily,” the NHC said in a statement.
“Those with mild infections will be given therapies and monitored during isolation,” the NHC said, adding, “If their condition worsens, they will be transferred to designated hospitals for further treatment.”
In another change, discharged patients only need to monitor their health at home for seven days, instead of the earlier 14 days in isolation.
