Henan passes COVID peak; hospitals expand capacity

Henan province has successfully passed its peak COVID-19 infection season and entered a smooth transition period, local officials said on Monday.

"Community monitoring data indicate that, as of Friday, the infection rate in the province was 89 percent, including 89.1 percent in urban areas and 88.9 percent in rural areas," Kan Quancheng, director of the provincial Health Commission, said at a news conference on Monday. "It is expected that a low increase of daily infections will continue until the end of January."

Currently, the dominant strain in the province is Omicron BA.5.2, Kan said.

To provide a strong guarantee for medical treatment, secondary and tertiary hospitals in the province have made efforts to tap their full potential. Measures include setting up new wards, adding emergency respiratory wards and beds and transforming ordinary wards into areas for patients with severe symptoms.

"Since Dec 12, secondary and tertiary hospitals have increased their available beds from 393,301 to 545,119, including 21,771 beds in intensive care units," Kan said. "The provincial government has allocated 600 million yuan ($88.62 million) for medical institutions to expand critical beds and purchase urgently needed equipment."

The province also launched health monitoring for residents 65 or older, in three risk groups — high, medium and low — based on factors such as underlying diseases and vaccination status.

As of Saturday, around 12.8 million people have been recorded, including about 1 million in high-risk groups, about 7.8 percent.

A team of 32,000 family doctors and 110,000 village doctors in the province will follow up with members of the high-risk group three times a week and the medium-risk group twice a week via telephone, WeChat, video and home visits. They will provide health monitoring, medication guidance and consultation services.

They will also focus on early intervention and identification. As soon as symptoms related to COVID-19 infection are observed, they will immediately give medical advice to prevent worsening.