COVID in China: Half of Shanghai’s population of 25 million ‘could be infected by end of next week’
A Shanghai hospital has told its staff to prepare for a “tragic battle” with COVID-19 as it expects half of the city’s 25 million people will get infected by the end of next week.
It is two weeks since most zero-COVID restrictions were suddenly reversed in China, leaving the virus to sweep through the country largely unchecked.
The Shanghai Deji Hospital, posting on its official WeChat account late on Wednesday, estimated there were about 5.43 million positive cases in the city and predicted 12.5 million will get infected by the end of the year.
People wearing protective masks and face shields arrive at a hospital in Shanghai
“This year’s Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day, and the Lunar New Year are destined to be unsafe,” said the private hospital, which employs about 400 staff.
“In this tragic battle, the entire Greater Shanghai will fall, and we will infect all the staff of the hospital! We will infect the whole family!
“Our patients will all be infected! We have no choice, and we cannot escape.”
China‘s official number of deaths since the pandemic began three years ago stands at 5,241 – a fraction of what most other countries faced.
A Chinese health official confirmed on Thursday that China only counts deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official COVID death toll.
Fatalities that occur in patients with pre-existing illnesses are not counted as COVID-19 deaths, said Wang Guiqiang, the head of infectious disease at Peking University First Hospital.
This runs counter to the policy in most countries of counting any death in which COVID-19 is a factor as a coronavirus-related death.
Read more: ‘In Wuhan, there is creeping sense more suffering is coming’
China reported no new COVID deaths for a second consecutive day on 21 December, even as funeral parlour workers say demand has jumped in the past week, pushing fees higher.
Medical staff move a patient into a fever clinic at a hospital, as a COVID outbreak continues in Shanghai
Experts say China could face more than a million COVID deaths next year, given relatively low full vaccination rates among its vulnerable elderly population.
China’s vaccination rate is above 90%, but the rate for adults who have received booster shots drops to 57.9%, and to 42.3% for people aged 80 and above, government data shows.
Authorities confirmed 389,306 cases with symptoms, but some experts say official figures have become an unreliable guide as less testing is being done following the easing of restrictions.
Infections in China are likely to be more than a million a day with deaths at more than 5,000 a day, a “stark contrast” from official data, British-based health data firm Airfinity said this week.
At a hospital in Beijing, footage from state television CCTV showed rows of elderly patients in the intensive care unit breathing through oxygen masks. It was unclear how many had COVID.
The deputy director of the hospital’s emergency department, Han Xue, told CCTV they were receiving 400 patients a day, four times more than usual.
World
22 killed after suicide bomber opens fire at church in Syria – and then detonates explosive vest
At least 22 people have been killed after a suicide bomber opened fire at a church in Syria – and then detonated an explosive vest.
This is the first such incident since Bashar al Assad was toppled in December, and officials claim the attacker was a member of Islamic State.
It happened at a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus, with estimates suggesting that 350 worshippers were praying there at the time.
Pic: White Helmets via Reuters
Witnesses said the perpetrator had his face covered when he began shooting – and blew himself up as crowds attempted to remove him from the building.
A security source told Reuters that two men were involved in the attack, with a priest saying he saw a second gunman at the entrance.
Officials say 63 people were injured, and children were among the casualties.
Syria’s information minister, Hamza Mostafa, condemned the terrorist attack – writing on X: “This cowardly act goes against the civic values that bring us together.
“We will not back down from our commitment to equal citizenship… and we also affirm the state’s pledge to exert all its efforts to combat criminal organisations.”
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Pic: Reuters
Reports suggest that IS has attempted to attack several churches in Syria since Assad fell, but this is the first time they have succeeded.
Footage filmed by Syria’s civil defence, the White Helmets, showed scenes of destruction inside the church – including bloodied floors and shattered pews.
The Greek foreign ministry says it “unequivocally condemns the abhorrent terrorist suicide bombing”, and called on Syria “to guarantee the safety” of Christians with new measures.
Stunning images showing distant parts of the universe – including one of a region situated thousands of light years from Earth – have been captured by a powerful new telescope.
The camera at the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile is expected to reveal new details from space on an unprecedented scale as it makes further observations during the next decade.
Scientists expect it to chart thousands of asteroids not previously identified – and believe it will discover within months whether there is a ninth planet in our solar system.
The new images show the light from millions of stars and galaxies in observations which took the world’s largest and most powerful camera only 10 hours to complete.
One image shows a mosaic of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae, a star-forming region which is 9,000 light years from Earth.
A single light year is the distance light travels in 12 months. In space, it “zips through at 186,000 miles per second and 5.88 trillion miles per year”, says NASA.
Galaxies pictured in the Virgo Cluster. Pic: NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin Observatory
Another image shows thousands of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, in what scientists said offers just a “peek at the cosmos”.
The observatory is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation, an independent agency of the US government.
The first images offer a small taste of what might come. Pic: NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin Observatory
The foundation’s chief of staff Brian Stone told CNN the observatory “will capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined”.
Rubin has been built on a mountain in the Andes, a region in central Chile which is also home to other observatories due to its dry air and dark skies.
The telescope’s work will “capture the cosmos in exquisite detail” as it repeatedly scans the sky for 10 years to “create an ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our universe”.
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Scientists in the UK will be working in partnership with the teams at Rubin to help process the detailed information and images captured by the telescope.
The National Science Foundation is expected to release more images and video from Rubin’s initial work later on Monday.
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