Cover Story: Covid Chaos at China’s Hospitals as Stringent Control Policy Eases

As Chinese authorities move to ease the burdens of sweeping pandemic lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and regular mass testing, the country’s hospitals are feeling the first shock of a giant wave of infections and shortage of health workers.

Since the State Council, China’s cabinet, rolled out a new 10-point plan Wednesday to ease its stringent Covid-19 controls, ending mass nucleic acid testing and allowing some infected people to quarantine at home rather than in centralized facilities, hospitals are facing increasing workloads as infections surge.