Speaker 1: As genetic sequencing and China dwindles testing, tsunami of COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen cases spurring some very deep concern. Let us go deeper.
Speaker 1: Joining us live now is bloom Brigs. John Lu, Beijing
Speaker 1: executive editor, Thank you so much, as always, John, Let's
Speaker 1: start in Shanghai. We remember the city and dirt, a
Speaker 1: brutal lockdown, other reports that things have gotten very bad
Speaker 1: there again. Now we're hearing intensive care units are using
Speaker 1: hallways and the like. How rampant is this? Well, what
Speaker 1: we have is a sudden surgeon infections in Shanghai in
Speaker 1: other parts of China, and a medical system that wasn't
Speaker 1: wasn't given very much time to prepare. And so what
Speaker 1: we've seen is at hospitals emergency rooms, I see you
Speaker 1: beds being filled and the doctors they're having no choice
Speaker 1: but to put some patients into the hallway, for example,
Speaker 1: Others who are in less serious condition being asked to wait,
Speaker 1: sometimes outside lots of ambulances. And so the situation at
Speaker 1: the moment is rather a strained so in generally in
Speaker 1: fiction infections in Shanghai and now we're looking like what
Speaker 1: we've seen in Beijing for the past week or two. Correct, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. Obviously, anecdotally we've seen a big uptick
Speaker 1: in the number of people who are sick, big drop
Speaker 1: off in things such as ridership of the local subway system.
Speaker 1: It's down about half of what it was in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: so the year before the pandemic. Uh, we don't have
Speaker 1: the testing data anymore because there is no more testing
Speaker 1: being required of citizens, and so there is no real,
Speaker 1: uh good clear way to see what the trend is
Speaker 1: in terms of overall overall infections. Okay, so more and
Speaker 1: more and you tell me if this is fair. Um,
Speaker 1: it looks as if COVID COVID zero over the short
Speaker 1: term was very effective, but now the price is really
Speaker 1: being paid, and we don't know how big good price
Speaker 1: is going to be. Well. China is obviously making an
Speaker 1: exit from of it zero and so reopening, reopening the economy,
Speaker 1: and I think, as we've seen in other countries around
Speaker 1: the world, when that happens, when the lockdowns lift there
Speaker 1: there is an uptick in infections, and that is what
Speaker 1: is happening in China at the moment. I think the
Speaker 1: real question is, uh, how will the high risk population
Speaker 1: be affected? So people who are are over the age
Speaker 1: of eighty, for example, who have not had a vaccine. Uh,
Speaker 1: there is a real concern that there will be widespread death,
Speaker 1: and so there is a real we're keeping a very
Speaker 1: close eye on that situation. Obviously, we've talked about the hospitals. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's also been a lack of medicines for things like fever,
Speaker 1: and just because that exit happened so quickly, Uh, the
Speaker 1: supplies for that weren't prepared, the pharmacies weren't prepared, and
Speaker 1: so people are having a hard time getting their hands
Speaker 1: on those drugs. Now, John, we're we're also running a
Speaker 1: story here and Bloomberg with the short of the anti
Speaker 1: virals like pact a lit bit that people are turning
Speaker 1: to the black market. Um, how is that working? What?
Speaker 1: What kind of black market? Well, the thing that we've
Speaker 1: observed most frequently is, uh, the purchase of generics from
Speaker 1: producers in South South Asian, so places like Bangladesh, like India,
Speaker 1: orders placed online, paid for and then shipped from those
Speaker 1: places into China. Obviously, China has approved paxlovid as a
Speaker 1: treatment domestically, but as we were talking about earlier, because
Speaker 1: there's the exit happened so quickly, those supplies were not
Speaker 1: in place for people to get to and there's been
Speaker 1: a sudden rush to get to get the medicines by
Speaker 1: people who are either just getting infected or worried that
Speaker 1: they will be effected soon. So there's been a real
Speaker 1: straight on supplies, all right, John, Hey, thank you again.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate your help on the perspective how that is that?
Speaker 1: John Lu, Beijing Executive Editor,