Severe COVID peak to hit China in 2-3 weeks, open data urged

"The number of COVID-19 infections is currently high in various regions across China, which means the peak of severe cases will arrive within 2 to 3 weeks, meaning hospitals at all levels need to prepare for patients with severe illness," People's Daily Health cited an expert as saying.

As the peaks of COVID-19 infections come at different times in various regions, those of critical cases will be different too. But looking at the development of the COVID virus, the peak of severe illnesses generally appears 2 to 3 weeks after that of the infection, said Qiu Yunqing, executive vice president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine.

At present, ICU beds across the country are relatively saturated, which poses a huge challenge to China's medical resources and medical staff, Qiu added.

In Beijing, hospitals are also under intense pressure, with almost all EICU beds of Peking University First Hospital occupied, CCTV reported on Tuesday.

"The number of critical patients has soared to 500 each day on average in recent weeks, while the most severe patients, which originally accounted for 15 percent, are now about 40 percent of the total, said Xiong Hui, director of the Emergency Department of the hospital.

With more patients infected with COVID-19 under critical health conditions, experts urged the government to publish critical data for cities to take effective measures in time.

"I hope that the country and local governments can publish related data," said Chen Jingyu, vice hospital president of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine.

"For example, in areas with high infection rates like Beijing, the local government should inform society as soon as possible of data including severe cases rate, ventilator usage conditions, ECMO usage conditions, patient death, and death caused by complications," Chen said.

Statistics of severe patients are truly critical to fight against the COVID-19, he believes.