BAZHOU, China — Nearly three years after it was first identified in China, the COVID-19 virus is now spreading through the vast country and experts predict difficult months ahead for its 1.4 billion people.
China’s unyielding “zero-COVID” approach, which aimed to isolate all infected people, bought it years to prepare for the disease. But an abrupt reopening, announced Dec. 7 in the wake of anti-lockdown protests, caught the nation under-vaccinated and short on hospital capacity.
Experts have forecast between a million and 2 million deaths next year.
Ng Han Guan, Associated Press
Family members in protective gear collect the cremated remains of their loved one bundled with yellow cloth Dec. 17 at a crematorium in Beijing.
It’s not clear exactly how large the current outbreak is, as China has reduced testing and stopped reporting most mild cases. But in cities and towns around Baoding and Langfang, in Hebei province, an area that was among the first to face an unchecked outbreak, Associated Press reporters saw hospital intensive care units overwhelmed by patients, and ambulances being turned away. Across the country, widespread reports of absences from work, shortages of fever-reducing medicine, and staff working overtime at crematoria suggest the virus is widespread.
China belongs to a small club of countries that managed to stop most domestic transmission of the virus in 2020, but it’s the last to end restrictions. Experiences of ending vary: Singapore and New Zealand achieved high vaccination rates and bolstered medical systems during restrictions, and reopened relatively smoothly. Hong Kong, where omicron overcame defenses while many elderly people were unvaccinated, suffered a disruptive COVID-19 wave in 2022. Nearly 11,000 people died of the illness this year in the city of 7.4 million, with 95% of them older than 60, according to Hong Kong’s department of health. Data from the city showed a 15% fatality rate for those older than 80 and unvaccinated, said Jin Dong-yan, a virology expert at Hong Kong University.
Chinatopix Via AP
A nurse gives a COVID-19 vaccine shot to an elderly woman Dec. 9 at a community health center in Nantong in eastern China's Jiangsu province.
China has higher vaccination rates than Hong Kong did at the time of its omicron outbreak, but many people are vulnerable to infection, especially the elderly.
The country has exclusively used domestically made vaccines, which rely on older technology than the mRNA vaccines used elsewhere that have shown the best protection against infection.
A study conducted in Hong Kong, which administered both an mRNA vaccine and Sinovac’s CoronaVac, suggested that CoronaVac requires a third shot to provide comparable protection, especially for the elderly. An ordinary course of the vaccine is two shots, with an optional booster later.
Most people vaccinated in China have received either CoronaVac or a similar vaccine produced by SinoPharm, but the country has administered at least five other vaccines. Comparable real-world data isn’t available for these vaccines.
While China counts 90% of its population vaccinated, only around 60% have received a booster. Older people are especially likely to have not had a booster vaccine. Over 9 million people older than 80 have not had a third dose, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
Vaccination rates increased over 10-fold, to over a million doses administered a day, since the start of the month. But Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at India’s Christian Medical College in Vellore, said prioritizing the elderly would be key. Unlike other countries, China prioritized vaccinating the more mobile young to prevent the virus from spreading, said Ray Yip, founding director of the U.S. CDC office in China. A campaign targeting those older than 60 started in December, but it is unclear how successful it has been.
Associated Press
A man squats outside a treatment room Dec. 21 as an elderly person receives help with breathing via a manual ventilator pump at the emergency department of the Baoding No. 2 Central Hospital in Zhuozhou city of Baoding prefecture in northern China's Hebei province.
Around Baoding and Langfang, hospitals have run out of intensive care beds and staff as severe cases surge. Patients lay on the floor, while others drove from hospital to hospital searching for beds for relatives.
China only has 80,050 doctors and 220,000 nurses for its critical care facilities, and another 177,700 nurses who the National Health Commission says could potentially work in those units.
Yu Changping, a doctor at the Department of Respiratory Medicine of People’s Hospital of Wuhan University, said he’s seen growing numbers of COVID-19 patients in recent weeks, and almost all the doctors in the department have been infected.
China has not announced a clear triage plan, a system where hospitals prioritize giving treatments to the very sick to ration limited resources.
Beijing converted temporary hospitals and centralized quarantine facilities to increase the number of fever clinics from 94 to 1,263. But rural areas may suffer, as the vast majority of China’s ICU beds are in its cities.
Ng Han Guan, Associated Press
A family member carries the photo of a deceased relative Dec. 17 outside a crematorium in Beijing.
The use of digital tools and telemedicine may offer some breathing room to hospitals: Over a third of hospitals use some form of telemedicine, and about 31% used digital tools in their health care, according to a nationwide survey of 120 public and private hospital executives in urban areas conducted by LEK Consulting in Shanghai.
China approved Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid for COVID-19 earlier this year, and two domestic therapies: an antiviral used for AIDS made by Genuine Biotech that has been repurposed for COVID-19 and a cocktail of virus-blocking antibodies made by BriiBio. But it is unclear how widely available these drugs are.
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Chia-Chi Charlie Chang/Pool/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
One week after the FDA granted Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine Emergency Use Authorization, the agency granted authorization to Moderna's vaccine. Moderna's vaccine, like Pfizer's, uses messenger RNA—specially designed genetic material that triggers your body's immune system to prepare for an attack by the novel coronavirus without actually encountering the virus itself.
The two vaccines now available in the U.S. have both been highly effective in clinical trials and appear to reduce risk of serious COVID-19 illness, though scientific understanding about how well both vaccines work will improve in the months to come. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who received his first dose of Moderna's vaccine on Dec. 22, said he feels "extreme confidence in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine" and encourages other Americans to get vaccinated.
Chia-Chi Charlie Chang/Pool/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
One week after the FDA granted Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine Emergency Use Authorization, the agency granted authorization to Moderna's vaccine. Moderna's vaccine, like Pfizer's, uses messenger RNA—specially designed genetic material that triggers your body's immune system to prepare for an attack by the novel coronavirus without actually encountering the virus itself.
The two vaccines now available in the U.S. have both been highly effective in clinical trials and appear to reduce risk of serious COVID-19 illness, though scientific understanding about how well both vaccines work will improve in the months to come. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who received his first dose of Moderna's vaccine on Dec. 22, said he feels "extreme confidence in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine" and encourages other Americans to get vaccinated.
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Tasos Katopodis // Getty Images
Facing the prospect of another government shutdown, Trump signed the $2.3 trillion bill that Congress presented to him six days prior, which includes federal funding for 2021 and another stimulus package for Americans. After initially opposing the bill and urging Congress to increase stimulus check payment amounts to $2,000, the president acquiesced and put into law a $900 billion stimulus package that will send $600 stimulus payments to eligible Americans, as well as add $300 to unemployment benefits and extend the benefits until March. The bill also provides funding for schools, transportation, vaccine distribution, rental relief, and additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.
Tasos Katopodis // Getty Images
Facing the prospect of another government shutdown, Trump signed the $2.3 trillion bill that Congress presented to him six days prior, which includes federal funding for 2021 and another stimulus package for Americans. After initially opposing the bill and urging Congress to increase stimulus check payment amounts to $2,000, the president acquiesced and put into law a $900 billion stimulus package that will send $600 stimulus payments to eligible Americans, as well as add $300 to unemployment benefits and extend the benefits until March. The bill also provides funding for schools, transportation, vaccine distribution, rental relief, and additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.
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PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
A new variant of the novel coronavirus, called the B.1.1.7 variant, was found in the U.K. in September. The variant has many similarities to the existing coronavirus strain that has infected millions, and early research suggests that Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines should be effective in curbing illness caused by the strain. But this new variant is much more contagious, making it a significant threat to the U.S. at a time when hospitals are already under strain with COVID-19 patients at an all-time high.
As of Jan. 7, 2021, 52 B.1.1.7 cases have been detected in the U.S., according to the CDC. This number is likely a significant undercount, however, as the U.S. does not systematically identify the genetic sequences of coronavirus DNA in patients—a process which is necessary to distinguish the new variant from the older, more-prevalent coronavirus strain. The U.S. has sequenced fewer than 1% of its cases, while the U.K. has sequenced about 10%.
PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images
A new variant of the novel coronavirus, called the B.1.1.7 variant, was found in the U.K. in September. The variant has many similarities to the existing coronavirus strain that has infected millions, and early research suggests that Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines should be effective in curbing illness caused by the strain. But this new variant is much more contagious, making it a significant threat to the U.S. at a time when hospitals are already under strain with COVID-19 patients at an all-time high.
As of Jan. 7, 2021, 52 B.1.1.7 cases have been detected in the U.S., according to the CDC. This number is likely a significant undercount, however, as the U.S. does not systematically identify the genetic sequences of coronavirus DNA in patients—a process which is necessary to distinguish the new variant from the older, more-prevalent coronavirus strain. The U.S. has sequenced fewer than 1% of its cases, while the U.K. has sequenced about 10%.
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Chip Somodevilla // Getty Images
COVID-19 has spread quickly around the world, causing more than 2 million deaths and infecting more than 97 million people as of Jan. 21, 2021, according to Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center. It’s already hard to remember life before COVID-19—but it was less than a year ago when a doctor in China sounded the alarm about a new respiratory virus. Since then, cases have been confirmed in nearly every country and on every continent except Antarctica. The United States today has the most COVID-19 cases in the world, and cases are rising quickly as people defied CDC recommendations to gather for fall and winter holidays.
The story of how COVID-19 spread so far and so fast is a story of government secrecy, delayed action, polarizing politics, and a highly contagious virus. To better understand what has happened and what might follow, Stacker constructed a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic from its first mention by Dr. Li Wenliang in Wuhan, China. Our timeline includes information from a range of sources including news outlets such as the New York Times and CNN, Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center, the COVID Tracking Project, science articles, and releases from the World Health Organization (WHO). Keep reading for more information about the COVID-19 pandemic and a better understanding of how a highly contagious virus became a global health crisis.
You may also like: 15 ways doctors are now treating COVID-19
Chip Somodevilla // Getty Images
COVID-19 has spread quickly around the world, causing more than 2 million deaths and infecting more than 97 million people as of Jan. 21, 2021, according to Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center. It’s already hard to remember life before COVID-19—but it was less than a year ago when a doctor in China sounded the alarm about a new respiratory virus. Since then, cases have been confirmed in nearly every country and on every continent except Antarctica. The United States today has the most COVID-19 cases in the world, and cases are rising quickly as people defied CDC recommendations to gather for fall and winter holidays.
The story of how COVID-19 spread so far and so fast is a story of government secrecy, delayed action, polarizing politics, and a highly contagious virus. To better understand what has happened and what might follow, Stacker constructed a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic from its first mention by Dr. Li Wenliang in Wuhan, China. Our timeline includes information from a range of sources including news outlets such as the New York Times and CNN, Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center, the COVID Tracking Project, science articles, and releases from the World Health Organization (WHO). Keep reading for more information about the COVID-19 pandemic and a better understanding of how a highly contagious virus became a global health crisis.
You may also like: 15 ways doctors are now treating COVID-19
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Chip Somodevilla // Getty Images
On President Trump's final full day in office, the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic reached 400,000 American casualties. This is more than the number of American casualties reported in World War II—and is likely an undercount of the true death toll, according to Vox. That evening, the deaths were memorialized with 400 lights placed at the Reflecting Pool outside the Lincoln Memorial. President-elect Joe Biden hosted a ceremony to remember the lost lives; his inauguration took place the next day.
Chip Somodevilla // Getty Images
On President Trump's final full day in office, the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic reached 400,000 American casualties. This is more than the number of American casualties reported in World War II—and is likely an undercount of the true death toll, according to Vox. That evening, the deaths were memorialized with 400 lights placed at the Reflecting Pool outside the Lincoln Memorial. President-elect Joe Biden hosted a ceremony to remember the lost lives; his inauguration took place the next day.
