China targets elderly with booster campaign as COVID cases surge

Fever clinics, set up as the first point of contact to avoid a strain on hospital services, have seen the number of patients jump 16 times from a week earlier to 22,000 on Sunday.

Chinese authorities on Wednesday said they would launch a booster campaign targeting the elderly, amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases.

Beijing for the first time said it would also no longer report daily asymptomatic cases because the rapid surge had made the numbers “impossible to track”.

A week after China’s easing of “zero-COVID” restrictions, cases have spiralled around the country. The capital has seen long lines outside fever clinics, but as yet has not seen any apparent strain on hospital resources for treatment of severe cases.

Fever clinics, set up as the first point of contact to avoid a strain on hospital services, have seen the number of patients jump 16 times from a week earlier to 22,000 on Sunday, according to Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Health Commission. City hospitals had also seen a six-fold increase in patients with flu symptoms, while 31,000 emergency medical calls were made on December 9, also a six-fold increase, the official China Daily reported.

While most cases so far have been reported as mild, there is concern over at least some of these turning serious particularly among the large number of unvaccinated elderly.

The National Health Commission on Wednesday announced a plan to roll out a second booster shot, starting with elderly and those with underlying diseases.

Some health experts had called for a booster campaign to be rolled out before China’s lifting of measures to prevent deaths among the elderly. China’s campaign to vaccinate the elderly, which now faces a race against time, has lagged during the past year, with only 40% of the 30 million-plus above-80 population completing three doses. Vaccination numbers slowed as under the zero-COVID policy, many elderly saw little need to get vaccinated given low risks of contracting the virus.