Reuters Health News Summary
Following is a summary of current health news briefs.
'The ICU is full': medical staff on frontline of China's COVID fight say hospitals are 'overwhelmed'
In more than three decades of emergency medicine, Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein said, he has never seen anything like this. Patients are arriving at his hospital in ever-increasing numbers; almost all are elderly and many are very unwell with COVID and pneumonia symptoms, he said.
China's Zhejiang has 1 million daily COVID cases, expected to double
China's Zhejiang, a big industrial province near Shanghai, is battling around a million new daily COVID-19 infections, a number expected to double in the days ahead, the provincial government said on Sunday. Despite a record surge of cases nationwide, China reported no COVID deaths on the mainland for the five days through Saturday, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.
China to scrap COVID quarantine rule for inbound travelers
China will stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting from Jan. 8, the National Health Commission said on Monday in a major step towards easing curbs on its borders, which have been largely shut since 2020. China's management of COVID-19 will also be downgraded to the less strict Category B from the current top-level Category A, the health authority said in a statement, as the disease has become less virulent and will gradually evolve into a common respiratory infection.
Beijing, Shanghai residents back to work as China limps towards living with COVID
Mask-wearing Beijing and Shanghai commuters crowded subway trains on Monday as China's two biggest cities edged closer to living with COVID-19 even as frontline medical workers scrambled to cope with millions of new infections. After three years of harsh anti-coronavirus curbs, President Xi Jinping scrapped China's zero-COVID policy of lockdowns and relentless testing on Dec. 7 in the face of public protests and a widening outbreak.
Chinese make travel plans as COVID rules ease further
Chinese people, cut off from the rest of the world for three years by COVID-19 curbs, flocked to travel sites on Tuesday ahead of borders reopening, even as rising infections strained the health system and roiled the economy. Zero-tolerance measures - from shuttered borders to frequent lockdowns - have battered China's economy since early 2020, fueling last month the mainland's biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
Japan to require negative COVID test upon arrival for Chinese travelers - FNN
Japan will require a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival for travelers from China due to the rapid spread of the virus in the country, Japan's FNN reported on Tuesday. The government hopes to introduce the measure as early as this week, FNN said.
