That number might rise sharply in the near future, with state-run Global Times citing a leading Chinese respiratory expert predicting a spike in severe cases in the capital over the coming weeks.
"We must act quickly and prepare fever clinics, emergency and severe treatment resources," Wang Guangfa, a respiratory expert from Peking University First Hospital, told the newspaper.
Severe cases increased by 53 across China on Tuesday (Dec 20), versus an increase of 23 the previous day. China does not provide absolute figures of severe cases.
Wang expects a peak in cases in China in late January, with life likely to return to normal by end-February or early March.
INTERNATIONAL CONCERNS
Amid doubts over China's very low COVID-19 death toll by global standards, the National Health Commission on Tuesday clarified only people whose death is caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting the virus are classified as COVID-19 deaths.
Benjamin Mazer, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University, said that classification would miss "a lot of cases", especially as people who are vaccinated, including with the Chinese shots, are less likely to die of pneumonia.
Blood clots and sepsis - an extreme body response to infection - have caused countless deaths among COVID-19 patients around the world.
"It doesn't make sense to apply this sort of March 2020 mindset where it's only COVID pneumonia that can kill you, when we know that in the post-vaccine era, there's all sorts of medical complications," Mazer said.
The NHC also played down concerns raised by the US and some epidemiologists over the potential for the virus to mutate, saying the possibility of new strains that are more pathogenic is low.
Paul Tambyah, President of the Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, supported that view.
"I do not think that this is a threat to the world," he said. "The chances are that the virus will behave like every other human virus and adapt to the environment in which it circulates by becoming more transmissible and less virulent."
Several leading scientists and World Health Organization advisors told Reuters it may be too early to declare the end of the global COVID-19 pandemic emergency phase because of a potentially devastating wave to come in China.
Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "hopeful" of an end to the emergency sometime next year.
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December 21, 2022 at 10:50AM
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Beijing braces for surge in severe COVID-19 cases as world watches with concern - CNA
"severe" - Google News
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