People have suspected that another wave of COVID-19 has started in China, given reported symptoms and the communist regime’s lack of transparency. Many children in mainland China have been having high fevers, coughs, and even “white lungs” symptoms. They have flooded hospitals and infected other members of their families, according to Chinese media reports and posts on social media. People have been left to suspect that another outbreak of COVID-19 has started, given the symptoms reported, the authorities’ lack of transparency, and the lack of press freedom in China.
Online Chinese news outlet Hongxing News, which belongs to the Chengdu city government, reported that the pediatric outpatient hall of Hangzhou First Hospital was already full by 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 17. Director of Pediatrics Dr. Jiang Chunming told local media that in the past two months, the volume of pediatric outpatients has been around 1,000 a day. Last weekend, the number of outpatient visits reached 1,800 to 1,900. The wards were full without any hospital beds available, while many children were left waiting to be admitted.
Dr. Jiang cited a case as an example: a 10-year-old child developed symptoms of repeated coughing and fever. He came to the pediatric clinic on the 12th day of his illness. “The examination found small black cavities in the white areas of the lungs and partial lung necrosis. The patient was finally diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia,” Dr. Jiang said.
The Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated on Oct. 12 that Beijing is witnessing a period with a high incidence of “mycoplasma” pneumonia, which is expected to reach its peak in November. A doctor at Henan Children’s Hospital told The Epoch Times on Oct. 20, “The hospital is fully booked and there are a lot of patients, all suffering from mycoplasma pneumonia, mainly children.” He urged carers that if a child has a high fever, they should come to the hospital’s emergency department immediately to take a CT scan, because many children now have developed “white lungs” or even lung necrosis.
Mr. Li, a primary school teacher in Shanghai, told The Epoch Times, “Now, many people are having colds and fevers. There are more than 40 students in my class, but only a dozen come to school. Several children of my relatives also have fevers, and the adults are also infected. Children infect adults, and whole families become infected.”
At around 9 a.m. on Oct. 20, a doctor at Hunan Children’s Hospital told The Epoch Times that the hospital was already full, and all the appointments for the day had been fully booked. Many children have symptoms of “white lung,” the doctor said, adding, “There are no beds in the hospital now, and people need to wait in line for beds. It takes three or four days to be admitted to the hospital.” A pediatrician in Zhengzhou said in a video posted on Chinese social media that she treated more than 100 patients in the outpatient clinic in one day on Oct. 16, mostly children, many of whom had “white lungs.”
Since then, whenever hospitals become overcrowded with patients who have COVID-19 like symptoms, the CCP authorities have come up with a new term, such as “flu,” “noro,” “national pharyngitis,” and now “mycoplasma pneumonia” to explain the disease outbreaks, as mandatary COVID-19 PCR testing has been canceled. However, many in the Chinese public have expressed doubt that these new names do not refer to the ongoing outbreaks of COVID-19. Many videos on social media show that hospitals across China are crowded with people, with many parents bringing their children to see doctors in overflowing fever clinics. Even late at night, there are still long lines of people waiting to be treated in emergency rooms. Because the hospitals are full, many patients have been standing in the hospital lobby or in the halls receiving IV (intravenous) treatment.
Dr. Yu, a mainland Chinese pediatrician, posted a video on social media, saying “in addition to children over 5 years old, babies and adults are also infected, so this year’s epidemic of pneumonia is particularly serious.” Mr. Li, a primary school teacher in Shanghai, believes that the “mycoplasma pneumonia” that is spreading is the renamed COVID-19. “Isn’t COVID-19 pneumonia also infecting people in the early stages? We now call it a cold because there is no way to detect whether it is COVID-19. The symptoms are like colds, such as runny nose, headache, fever, sore throat.”
Ms. Zhou, a middle school teacher in mainland China, also said that everyone believes that the so-called “mycoplasma pneumonia” is COVID-19. She said that some children in her school who developed “white lungs” were being treated with the antibiotic azithromycin. This medicine has since sold out and is currently out of stock. Li Yun and Xiong Bin contributed to this report.