Residents Complain of Overcrowded Hospitals and Crematoriums Amid Surge in Respiratory Infections in China
‘There are very few people on the streets now; it’s very quiet,’ one resident in Shijiazhuang said.
A recent wave of respiratory infections in China has overloaded hospitals and crematoriums, residents across the country told The Epoch Times.
Residents in different provinces recently told The Epoch Times that since January, major hospitals and crematoriums have been packed, and they know many people who have had flu-like symptoms.
All the interviewees only provided their surnames due to security concerns regarding potential retaliation by authorities.
Hua, a villager in Tangshan, Hebei Province, said the big hospitals in the city are overcrowded, “like a busy market,” and crematoriums are experiencing the same issue.
“The crematoriums are working nonstop to handle the number of people who died in the hospitals,” he said.
“My hometown is in a rural area. Many people have died here, too,“ he continued. ”We need to find people with connections [to authorities or funeral home workers] to help to cremate the deceased.
“It’s like the end of the world!”
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Weakened Immune Systems
Yao pointed out that while people usually recover from the common cold, many are now unable to survive it, adding that “many people have died, mostly those in their 40s and 50s.”
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Coffins Sold Out
Li currently works in Xiamen, Fujian Province. He said that many people died in the city and his hometown of Zhumadian around the start of the New Year when the outbreak began to spike.
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Underreporting
In early 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that China was underreporting the number of citizens who had died from COVID-19 infections.
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Luo Ya, Wen Xin, and Xiong Bin contributed to this report.
