Chinese hospitals overburdened with sick kids as mysterious pneumonia cases rise

Chinese hospitals are being overburdened with sick children as the nation grapples with high cases of mysterious pneumonia amidst fears of a new epidemic similar to Covid.

According to local media reports, many medical institutions in northern China are stretched to a limit as paediatric visits have touched a historic high in the past one week, with the onset of winter compounding the uptick.

The main epicentres have been located in Beijing and Liaoning province, where schools have been ordered to shut down owing to rising cases.

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Hospitals overburdened

The Civil Aviation General Hospital in Beijing last week said that the paediatric outpatient clinic had recorded 550-650 visits daily, a rise of 30 to 50 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The hospital said that it has been shoring up manpower in the paediatrics unit with senior doctors from the cardiovascular, neurology, and critical care departments, and added that it has increased the number of security guards on-site, reports Business Insider.

Around 96 kilometres southeast Tianjian Children's Hospital Director Liu Wei published a Saturday letter via the city's WeChat announcement channel, saying his staff were overwhelmed.

More than 13,171 patients had been admitted to the hospital's two campuses in the last 24 hours, Liu wrote, urging the parents to remain calm.

"Our hospital staff have been working hard," Liu wrote. "They are also children of their parents. Their children have also been having fevers."

An hospital affiliated to the Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine said all paediatric department staff had to cancel their holidays, with administrative officials working in shifts for round-the-clock coordination of resources to cope with the surge, digital outlet Thepaper.cn reported.

A citizen from Beijing told Taiwanese news website FTV News, “Many, many (children) are hospitalised. They don’t cough and have no symptoms. They just have a high temperature and many develop pulmonary nodules.”

On November 13, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng warned that the country was seeing respiratory diseases "entering a season of high frequency," and called on hospitals to coordinate their medical resources.

Parents struggling to book appointments

Meanwhile, Chinese netizens have expressed concerns over a wave of hospitalisations, with parents complaining that they are struggling to book appointments.

"It's not just in Beijing. Chongqing is facing difficulties over here," a person wrote on Weibo, China's version of X, Business Insider reported. "All the children have respiratory illnesses."

"If Beijing doesn't have the medical resources, how can other places survive?" another wrote.

Some have called for schools to close. "It's come to this. The education authorities are still not willing to move to online classes," a Weibo user complained, responding to a state media article explaining how parents can care for their sick kids without medical assistance.

(With inputs from agencies)