Chinese health authorities have raised concerns about Covid-19 outbreaks among frontline medical staff and migrant workers returning home during the lunar new year holiday, as inadequately prepared rural areas could be overwhelmed by the virus.
“One of our biggest challenges is how hospitals cope with a surge in infections among doctors and nurses,” a health official in Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province, told the Financial Times.
The official, who asked not to be identified, added that infections among health workers were “an important factor” in a decision last month by officials in Shijiazhuang, the capital of northern Hebei province, to reverse a shortlived experiment with looser “zero-Covid” controls.