China sets up makeshift hospitals to reduce COVID burden

The health commission wants to reduce the burden on hospitals.

On April 6, 2022, Medics from Huashan Hospital of Fudan University work at the Lingang makeshift hospital for COVID 19 patients in Shanghai. A health official said on Monday that the building of more makeshift hospitals in China is intended to enabling mild and asymptomatic COVID 19 cases to be admitted promptly, in order to cut off the virus' transmission and prevent overburdening regular hospitals.

The National Health Commission said recently that local governments should plan ahead to set up more designated hospitals, makeshift hospitals and centralized quarantine facilities.

Guo Yanhong, an official at the Bureau of Medical Administration, said in a news briefing that makeshift hospitals refer to facilities equipped with essential infrastructure, such as water and electricity, toilets, shower rooms, ventilation systems and medical and protective equipment.

She said that such sites can begin receiving patients within 24 hours after a new outbreak is detected.

Guo said that setting up more makeshift hospitals is not a sign of worsening epidemic conditions.

She said it was necessary to adapt to the traits of Omicron, such as that it is highly contagious, spreads very quickly and the majority of infections are mild or asymptomatic.

Makeshift hospitals are vital to accommodating cases and relieving the strain on regular healthcare services because new infections will likely spike quickly during an Omicron outbreak, Guo said.

Guo said makeshift hospitals can play a significant role in tackling other contagious diseases and other large-scale health emergencies.

Guo stressed that China's virus control efforts should be rooted in preventing new cases via a set of measures such as mass testing and tracking and isolating close contacts. She said that prevention is the most cost-effective approach. Only in this way can we reduce the incidence of COVID 19 disease, narrow the scale of affected areas and safeguard the health of the people. As a number of major cities have begun establishing testing stands within a 15-minute walk, Guo said such arrangements mainly involve provincial capitals and cities with over 10 million people. She said that the frequency of testing should be based on local circumstances.

In terms of international travel, Liu Haitao, head of the National Immigration Administration's Department of Frontier Inspection and Management, said that citizens are advised not to leave the country unless they have essential or urgent reasons.

He said local immigration authorities were required to facilitate the demands of enterprises that need to resume operation, as well as those with plans to travel abroad to aid in the fight against the pandemic or deliver anti-virus materials.

Since China introduced a policy in June 2020 of suspending international flights when more than five passengers test positive, 727 suspension orders have been announced, bringing total flight cancellations to 1,679.

Li Zhengliang, deputy director of the General Administration of Customs' Department of Health Quarantine, said that 170 foreign enterprises with infection clusters were halted from their imports to prevent the spread of the virus via cold-chain products.