China’s COVID-19 Positivity Rate Exceeds 20 Percent; Hospitals Overcrowded With Patients: Doctors

Medical experts said when the positivity rate exceeds 20 percent, the epidemic is likely to reach a high prevalence level.

A student is given a nucleic acid test to detect COVID-19 by a health worker in protective clothing after finishing the final day of the National College Entrance Examination, also known as Gaokao, at a high school in Beijing on June 10, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

China’s COVID-19 positivity rate has exceeded 20 percent for the first time this year, which experts say will likely lead to a high epidemic level. Meanwhile, Chinese doctors and residents posted on social media and told The Epoch Times that hospitals have been packed with patients, creating a shortage of medicine for COVID-19.

The test positivity rate for COVID-19 continued to rise during Week 30 (July 20–26) of 2026, according to the latest national sentinel surveillance data for acute respiratory infectious diseases released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on July 30.

The rate reached 20.3 percent in respiratory samples from patients with influenza-like illness at sentinel hospitals nationwide, 4 percentage points higher than the previous week. The figure doubled in three weeks, from 9.6 percent in Week 27.

A July 27 report by state media Farmers’ Daily cited Chinese medical experts warning that “when the COVID-19 positivity rate exceeds 20 percent, it’s entirely possible for the epidemic to reach high prevalence level.”

Currently, the epidemic level is classified as “medium prevalence level,” which was raised in Week 29 from a low level by China’s CDC.

The report also warned that the nationwide travel peak in August may exacerbate the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Omicron NB.1.8.1 variant lineage of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 remains the predominant circulating strain, according to China’s CDC.

The gap in COVID-19 infection rates between the south and the north continues to widen, according to the latest data. The positive rate in southern provinces stood at 6.1 percent, increasing from 5.9 percent in the previous week, while the positive rate in northern provinces remained at 2.8 percent.

The Chinese communist regime’s official data releases are not considered reliable, given its record of underreporting data deemed unfavorable by authorities, including COVID-19 cases and the outbreak scale since 2020, but they can reveal certain trends.

Anecdotal accounts by local medical doctors and residents are used as supplementary information for understanding the situation on the ground in the authoritarian country.

Crowded Hospitals, Drug Shortages

Patients and doctors in China have reported on social media and told The Epoch Times that hospitals are overwhelmed and treating large numbers of COVID-19 patients with respiratory issues.

On Aug. 1, the blogger Meisi Medical published an article on Chinese online news portal 163.com, collecting Chinese doctors’ reporting of situations across the country. A doctor in Liaoning Province in northeastern China said that there’s a recent surge in cases of COVID-19 and Influenza A and B within their department, leading to a sharp rise in the consumption of antiviral medications.

A doctor in Hunan Province in central China posted a message on July 31 stating that COVID-19 is making a comeback and that the hospital’s pharmacy has completely run out of medication.

A doctor from Shandong Province in eastern China posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo on July 31: “The hospital emergency room is packed—there’s no room left on the floor for patients to lie down. Many of the patients are in serious condition.” The doctor asked whether the situation is due to a surge in COVID-19 or other respiratory diseases.

The positivity rate for influenza ranked second in the latest official data, standing at 14.5 percent. The predominant strains are the influenza B (Victoria) lineage and the A(H3N2) subtype.

People wait at a hospital in Beijing on June 23, 2025. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

The situation is most likely caused by co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses, which is leading to a more serious outbreak, Dr. Jonathan Liu in Canada told The Epoch Times on Aug. 3.

Taiwan has also seen an increase of COVID-19 infections, Taiwanese infectious disease specialist Cheng Yuan-yu told The Epoch Times, as well as Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

“SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses are the major pathogens in Taiwan, according to screening,” he said.

Han Yujie, a COVID-19 patient in Zhejiang Province who used a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 4 that when he visited the emergency room at the Yuhang branch of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine on July 26, it was overcrowded with COVID-19 patients and it took hours to see a doctor.

“There were just so many people. The waiting completely drained my energy,” he said.

He said the doctor advised him: “There are many people testing positive for COVID-19 lately, so it’s best to limit going out. If you were to contract a co-infection with Influenza A or B, the consequences could be severe.”

Feng, a medical doctor working within China’s disease control and prevention sector who only gave his last name out of fear of reprisal, confirmed on Aug. 3 to The Epoch Times that hospitals across China have indeed seen a surge of COVID-19 patients, who packed emergency rooms.

He warned that repeated infection of COVID-19 even with the less deadly Omicron variants could lead to severe symptoms and death.

Feng previously said that the Chinese population has had multiple cumulative infections of COVID-19, and they’ve reached a critical tipping point.

Xiaoxu Sean Lin, former U.S. Army microbiologist and associate professor of biomedical science at Fei Tian College Northern Campus in New York, previously told The Epoch Times that China’s official data looks strictly at hospital samples, “but it doesn’t tell you directly how many people are infected across the country.”

“Nowadays, many people are not tested for mild cases, do not go to the hospital, and do not report self-test results, so the true number of infections must be far higher than the number that this sentinel sample can reflect,” Lin said.

“What has been officially acknowledged represents only the tip of the iceberg. The true scale of the COVID-19 outbreak is likely greater than what the reports indicate.”

Lou Ya, Li Jing, and Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.