China’s medical staff are being asked to work while sick and retired workers are being recalled to duty, as frontline health professionals bear the brunt of Beijing’s about-face on its tough zero-Covid policy.
Experts have warned that the situation will deteriorate as the virus spreads from China’s big cities to rural areas with more precarious healthcare systems, as the country struggles with one of the world’s biggest Covid outbreaks.
“We can work hard, we can work overtime, but at the end of the day, medical staff, like others, are made of flesh, not iron,” said a Beijing-based doctor surnamed Ning. “No matter how dedicated we are, we have physical and mental limits.”