China's Hospitals Under Pressure Due To COVID-19

SHANGHAI, CHINA - JANUARY 13: (CHINA AND HONG KONG-OUT) Patients are cared for by relatives and medical staff as they are seen on beds set up in the atrium area of a busy hospital on January 13, 2023 in Shanghai, China. Chinas health care system has been struggling to cope with a surge of COVID-19 infections since the government ended nearly three years of tough zero COVID controls. At least 900 million people have been infected, according to a Peking University study, and authorities have reported 60,000 COVID-related deaths in hospitals alone in the past month. Infections have peaked in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai, but a second wave is expected to hit in rural areas with hundreds of millions of people traveling to their hometowns during the Lunar New Year holiday. Health officials are concerned that rural populations tend to be older, and the medical system in smaller towns and villages are not as well-resourced as bigger cities. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)