Elderly Covid patients fill hospital wards in China's major cities
Elderly patients lined the wards of hospitals in major cities in China as the country battled a wave of Covid cases.
The virus is surging across China in an outbreak authorities say is impossible to track after the end of mandatory mass testing.
A paramedic at Chongqing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, who confirmed the old man was a Covid patient, said he had picked up more than 10 people a day, 80 to 90 percent of whom were infected with coronavirus.
"Most of them are elderly people," he said.
"A lot of hospital staff are positive as well, but we have no choice but to carry on working."
Millions of elderly people across China are still not fully vaccinated, raising concerns that the virus may kill the most vulnerable citizens in huge numbers.
But under new government guidelines, many of those deaths would not be blamed on Covid.
Staff at the Chongqing hospital had their hands full, ferrying elderly patients to different floors as families and other visitors hovered anxiously.
A passing inpatient ward doctor confirmed the hospital had been very busy with Covid patients but declined to elaborate.
Beds are full and patients are left on stretchers in crowded corridors in Chongqing hospital's emergency ward, as the number of Covid cases soar across China.
The southwest city was locked down for nearly a month in November. Since, Covid has swept through the city as China dismantled its strict zero-Covid policy in early December.
