Chinese Pharmacies Struggle to Stock Medication as Covid Spreads

Despite the government reassurances and only a negligible increase in officially reported Covid-19 cases and deaths, anecdotal evidence paints a different picture: crematoriums running at full tilt, hospitals strained and pharmacy shelves cleaned out. The drug shortages in China have rippled out to Singapore and Hong Kong, where worried relatives have rushed to send medicines back home.

The absence of data makes it hard to verify the scale or extent of infections now sweeping through China. The government says fewer than 3,000 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded nationwide on average for the past five days, a number that most health experts say is far short of what their models predict. Chinese health officials also said this week that their definition of Covid-related deaths excludes patients with an underlying condition from the tally.

China has bristled at suggestions it has obscured the number of cases. On Thursday, the World Health Organization’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, said Chinese officials appeared to be struggling to provide an accurate account of events on the ground, citing the discrepancy between the official claim of a low number of cases in intensive-care units and anecdotal evidence that those wards are filling up. There were 416 patients classified as severe cases nationwide on Thursday, official data show.

U.S. Secretary of State

Antony Blinken,

in a phone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi…