COVID-19 Resurgence Spreads Anxiety in China, Raising Questions Over Hard-to-Find Treatments

This man tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from his vacation.

[COVID-19 Positive Patient : I went to the hospital and the doctor said confirmed cases have increased significantly lately. It seems this illness is never going away. They said another wave has started.]

According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the COVID-19 positive rate among respiratory specimens from flu-like patients visiting outpatient clinics and emergency rooms at sentinel hospitals nationwide reached 20.3% between June 20 and 26.

This means about 1 in 5 people tested positive for COVID-19.

In particular, surging 4 percentage points compared to the previous week, it surpassed the influenza virus to rank as the leading cause of respiratory illness.

Chinese health authorities believe COVID-19 has entered a "moderate epidemic" stage and expect infections to increase further for the time being.

Several types of oral COVID-19 treatments have already been approved in China, with three of them receiving full official approval.

However, in regular pharmacies across most regions including Beijing, it is difficult to obtain oral COVID-19 treatments.

This is not due to a shortage of medicine, but rather because of "outdated regulations."

Guidelines restricting pharmacy sales were established during the early days of the pandemic, and because it remains unclear whether these restrictions have been lifted, pharmacies are reluctant to stock the treatments out of concern for potential crackdowns and administrative penalties.

Ultimately, patients must visit hospitals for examinations and prescriptions or use direct-managed pharmacies on e-commerce platforms like JD.com and Meituan where transaction records are left. However, even these online deliveries reportedly take one to two days, and up to five days for remote areas.

COVID-19 treatments must be taken in the early stages of symptom onset to lower the risk of severe illness, raising concerns that waiting for medicine could reduce treatment effectiveness.

It is also reported that some pharmacies are even recommending influenza treatments—which cannot be used as COVID-19 treatments—to patients who cannot find the necessary medicine.

The authorities' ambiguous administrative guidelines are compounding the harm to patients who urgently need medication.

(Video Shooting: Choi Deok-hyeon, Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.