Care facilities in China scramble to shield the elderly from the Covid upsurge

 

The abrupt conclusion of China's Covid Zero programme is making it difficult for the managers of the Xiangfu Nursing Home, a luxurious home for the elderly in Shanghai's Changning neighbourhood. Shutting the doors was their quick fix for the time being.

In order to buy time while the virus spreads quickly throughout the nation, Xiangfu prohibited admission to family members and other guests in late November. After finishing their duties, employees are unable to leave and must instead stay on-site to sleep.

As China's elderly, who are under-vaccinated, find themselves suddenly surrounded by infection after three years of low threat, the same hunkering down is occurring throughout the country. Local governments are requiring care facilities to use the same closed-loop system that companies did during prior outbreaks in areas like Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing.

Time is of the essence. Evidence from around the world demonstrates that senior living facilities frequently see the largest waves of deaths, which is why nations gave priority to immunising residents of care homes initially.

That hasn't been the case in China, where, according to data from 2020, 38,000 residences house 8.2 million senior citizens. Among people over 80, only 42% have received booster doses. That is significantly below the levels observed in other nations that have since reopened after suspending strict anti-virus measures.

Pudong Shinan Nursing Home in Shanghai released a statement this week outlining its new policies, saying, "It's just the beginning of a really terrible time." "We are terrified when the scientists predict that 80–90% of the population will eventually become sick."

Officials from the National Health Commission last week provided care facilities at risk of Covid outbreaks with basic instructions. By increasing airflow, keeping your hands clean, using masks, and avoiding crowds, you can reduce the chance of infection. In addition, they encouraged elderly people to get shots without making vaccinations required.

The elderly have shown to be difficult to convince. According to Feng Wang, a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine, many senior Chinese are unwilling to get immunised. In a society that has historically placed a strong emphasis on honouring the elderly, forcing them to get immunised runs the danger of sparking a reaction, he said.

It's a huge risk, according to Wang. "I'm fairly sure there will be a lot of resistance among the nurses, the local community groups, and officials to force elderly people to take the vaccine if they refuse," the nurse predicted.

Such hesitancy can come at a high price. Sam Fazeli, the chief pharmaceutical analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, estimates that if China abandons Covid Zero, there might be up to 700,000 fatalities and 5 million hospital admissions.

Many of the thousands of deaths that occurred when omicron overran Hong Kong earlier this year were caused by inhabitants of care homes who had received insufficient vaccinations.