As the Chinese New Year approaches, a combination of multiple viruses in mainland China has caused hospitals across the country to become overcrowded. Government authorities recently issued a notification stating that influenza has entered its peak season and will remain at a high level of prevalence for some time. Videos on social media platform Douyin — the Chinese version of TikTok — show hospitals in various parts of the country packed with people, with young individuals reportedly “dying suddenly at an increasing rate,” and the comments section filled with sighs of grief.
According to a report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency, the Epidemic Control Group of the Chinese State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism issued a notification on Jan. 16, stating that the country is currently in the winter-spring season of acute respiratory infectious diseases. Influenza has entered its peak season and is expected to remain prevalent for a short time.
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Meanwhile, diseases caused by other respiratory pathogens — such as COVID-19, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, human metapneumovirus, and respiratory syncytial virus — are at low prevalence levels. However, these diseases still exist to varying degrees in different regions and specific demographics. The trend of alternating or concurrent outbreaks of multiple acute respiratory infectious diseases is expected to continue for some time, according to Xinhua.
Earlier, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported a continuous rise in the influenza virus positivity rate, with over 99 percent of cases being Influenza A. Media reports indicated that hospitals in Beijing and Shandong Province are seeing more than 1,000 patient registrations per day, while a hospital in Shanghai diagnosed nearly as many cases in one week of January as in the entirety of December 2024.
Internet users report hospitals ‘more crowded than shopping malls’
On Jan, 17, videos posted on Douyin showed hospitals across mainland China filled with people. Large crowds were gathered at the Zhengzhou University First Affiliated Hospital, one of China’s largest public hospitals. Long lines were seen at the Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, and Xinqiao Hospital, affiliated with the Army Medical University in Chongqing, was also overwhelmed. One Douyin video blogger exclaimed, “The the hospitals are more crowded than shopping malls,” and “The streets are empty, but hospitals are packed.”
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Videos on Douyin showed that Beijing Tumor Hospital was also overcrowded. Another video raised the question, “Why are so many young people getting cancer now? Why are the hospiatls so full?” The person filming lamented, “Look at the scenes in major hospitals — full of patients of all ages! There are people in their 80s and 90s, and even kids as young as 10 or 8! The diseases range from heart attacks and strokes to tumors and all sorts of rare conditions.”
Rise in sudden deaths
Reports of sudden deaths among students increased last year. Mainland media reported that on the morning of Nov. 11, 2024, a 14-year-old student at Mianzhu Experimental School in Deyang, Sichuan, collapsed during morning exercise and died despite rescue efforts. On Nov. 19, Guilin University reported that a freshman student had suddenly collapsed in a dormitory and died from “cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction.” On Oct. 12, a 16-year-old high school student in Huaibei, Anhui, collapsed while running and was diagnosed with “respiratory and cardiac arrest.”
Videos on Douyin featured an intern at a medical school stating that young people are “increasingly dying suddenly, and it’s almost impossible to save them.” Others commented, “This year, many people have died suddenly from heart attacks and myocarditis! The scariest thing is that there’s no warning — it just happens suddenly.”
Flu or COVID?
Many netizens in mainland China believe that sudden deaths are related to the aftereffects of COVID-19 or even vaccination. A user using the handle “HiDesigner” wrote, “Seven of my colleagues have died this year — all suddenly, and all aged 30 to 40. It’s 100% related to COVID. Remember not to overwork; these sudden deaths seem to be caused by exhaustion.”
Some netizens believe that the currently circulating “Influenza A” is actually COVID-19. “I feel like Influenza A is just another variant of COVID. The symptoms are exactly the same, but nobody calls it COVID anymore,” one person commented.
A man surnamed Liu from Shandong Province told Radio Free Asia, “They’re calling it Influenza A, but we suspect it might actually be a new COVID variant.”
On Douyin, a netizen in Shanghai claimed to have witnessed deaths among children from Influenza A, saying.
Netizens from Beijing, Tianjin, Gansu, Sichuan, Shandong, and other regions also reported deaths caused by Influenza A among both adults and children. However, the CCP has not released statistics on severe cases or deaths, leading to widespread suspicion that the government is once again concealing the severity of the situation.
By Li Muzi
