Beijing hospital under pressure as critical COVID cases surge

As critical COVID-19 cases are soaring across Beijing, Peking University First Hospital is under intense pressure, with almost all EICU beds occupied, CCTV reported on Tuesday.

"Generally speaking, the number of patients in the fever department has decreased, while that of critical patients soars to 500 each day on average in recent weeks," said Xiong Hui, director of the Emergency Department of the hospital.

The most critical patients, which originally accounted for 15 percent, now are about 40 percent of the total, Xiong added.

Almost all of the Emergency Intensive Care Unit(EICU) beds are occupied in the hospital. Once a patient leaves the EICU, the bed will immediately be occupied by another severe case, CCTV reported.

To ease the pressure of the emergency department, the hospital has added three respiratory ICUs. So far, more than 100 respiratory beds have been added to the hospital.

"Originally, we receive about three or four hundred patients each day, but on Monday the number jumped to 650. With so many patients, doctors are very tired," said Zhang Jianxia, head nurse at the Emergency Department.

A respiratory expert told Chinese financial media outlet Yicai that the increase in pneumonia cases doesn't mean that we underestimate the virulence of COVID-19. Rather, the surge is related to the large infected population and other virus infections.

"Compared to the original variants, the virulence of Omicron is decreasing, which is clear to all. However, when the infected population is very large, the number of pneumonia cases will also increase and the number of critical patients will up accordingly, which should not be underestimated," the expert said.