Since October, there has been a severe outbreak of contagious pneumonia among children in China. Children’s hospitals across the country have been overwhelmed with underage patients. At some hospitals, parents even had to wait in line for more than 24 hours to secure an appointment.
Han Dongye, a doctor at the pediatric department of Beijing Tsinghua Changgeng Hospital, revealed to Chinese state media that after China’s National Holiday Week (Sept. 29 to Oct. 6), the hospital’s pediatric outpatient and emergency treatment volume increased by 62 percent compared with the same period in 2022, and by 72 percent compared with the first half of 2023.
