At the same time, the effectiveness of China's most widely used vaccines has been called into question. The communist government's practice throughout the pandemic of trying to find and isolate every infected person has largely protected hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and staved off the deaths that have engulfed most of the world.īut the uncompromising approach also means most people in China have never been exposed to the virus. Some places already are talking about easing COVID-19 precautions.Ĭhina, which will be in the international spotlight when the Beijing Winter Olympics begin in two weeks, is not seeing the same dynamic.

In countries like Britain and the US, which have had comparatively light restrictions against the omicron wave, there is a glimmer of hope that the process might be underway.Ĭases skyrocketed in recent weeks but have since dropped in Britain and may have levelled off in the US, perhaps because the extremely contagious variant is running out of people to infect.

Most experts say the coronavirus around the world isn't going away and believe it could eventually become, like the flu, a persistent but generally manageable threat if enough people gain immunity through infections and vaccines. The sweeping 'zero-tolerance' strategy that China has used to keep COVID-19 case numbers low and its economy functioning may, paradoxically, make it harder for the country to exit the pandemic. Local media reports on Saturday said that officials were considering tighter city-wide restrictions but none have yet been confirmed. On Friday, officials shut down the building for five days after more 20 cases were linked to it, with mass testing now underway and food being delivered to residents stranded inside. She urged people across the city to limit their social engagements and avoid large gatherings. “It's not easy for us to control the spread because we cannot trace all their whereabouts,” senior Health Department official Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said, referring to the 2,700 residents as well as workers and visitors linked to the building at the centre of the outbreak. Health officials said some 26 confirmed cases and more than 100 cases classed as preliminary positive were recorded on Saturday, centred on three buildings in the Kwai Chung district north of the Kowloon peninsula. Hong Kong health officials warned on Saturday of a significantly worsening COVID-19 outbreak in the Asian financial hub as suspected infection numbers rose in a congested residential area. Across the network of hospitals, there have been 41 admissions of minors. The comparative study of the three waves of the pandemic also said that only 23.4 per cent of the patients required oxygen support during the third wave of the pandemic, as against 74 per cent during the second wave and 63 per cent during the first wave. Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has also been stressing that the fatalities are occurring among those patients who are immunocompromised and have co-morbidities. “In our hospitals, out of 82 deaths so far, 60 per cent was seen in the partially or unvaccinated population,” it said in a statement. The study by Max Healthcare said the deaths reported were largely among those aged over 70 and those suffering from multiple co-morbidities such as kidney diseases, heart diseases, diabetes, cancers etc. A study by a private hospital has said that 60 per cent of the patients who died during the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic were either partially or fully unvaccinated.

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