China says tracking COVID cases now ‘impossible’ as infections soar

China’s officials warn cases rising rapidly in Beijing after government abruptly abandoned its zero-COVID policy last week.

China says tracking COVID cases now ‘impossible’ as infections soar. China’s top health body said the true scale of coronavirus infections in the country is now “impossible” to track, with officials warning cases are rising rapidly in Beijing after the government abruptly abandoned its zero-COVID policy last week.

After nearly three years of attempting to stamp out the virus, the sudden end of mass testing and quarantines has led to a corresponding drop in officially reported infections, which hit an all-time high only last month.

With testing no longer required for much of the country, China’s National Health Commission on Wednesday admitted its numbers no longer reflected reality.

“Many asymptomatic people are no longer participating in nucleic acid testing, so it is impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infected people,” the NHC said in a statement.

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The statement comes after Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said the capital’s new infections were “rapidly growing”, according to state media.

Chinese leaders are determined to press ahead with opening up, with Beijing’s tourism authority saying Tuesday that it would resume tour groups in and out of the capital.

But the country is facing a surge in cases that experts fear it is ill-equipped to manage, with millions of vulnerable elderly still not fully vaccinated and underfunded hospitals lacking the resources to deal with an expected influx of infected patients.

A line of about 50 people stretched out the door of the Puren fever clinic in Beijing on Wednesday, with multiple residents telling AFP they were infected with COVID.

“Basically, if we are lining up here, we are all infected. We would not come here if we weren’t,” one person waiting in line told AFP.

“I’m here with a senior member of my family, he’s had a fever for nearly 10 days in a row now, so we are coming to do a check up on him.”