VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Passengers laden with luggage flocked to rail stations in China's megacities on Monday, heading to their hometowns for holidays that health experts fear could intensify a raging COVID-19 outbreak in areas less-equipped to handle it.

"I haven't been home for over three years," a 23-year old Beijing resident surnamed Chen told Reuters as he waited to board a train at the capital's main rail station.

"I am sure I will be very emotional once I reach the doorstep of my home."

Having adopted a rigid system of lockdowns and movement controls after the virus first emerged in late 2019, China abruptly abandoned its "zero COVID" policy in early December, letting the virus run unchecked in a population of 1.4 billion people.

Authorities said on Saturday nearly 60,000 people with COVID had died in hospitals between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12, a huge increase from previous figures that had been criticised by the World Health Organisation for not reflecting the scale and severity of the outbreak.

Even those numbers most likely exclude many people dying at home, especially in rural areas with weaker medical systems, one health expert has said. Several experts forecast more than one million people in China will die from the disease this year.

Ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, also known as the Spring Festival, which officially starts on Jan. 21, state media has been filled with stories of rural hospitals and clinics bolstering their supplies of drugs and equipment.

"The peak of COVID infection in our village has passed, but the Spring Festival is approaching and there are still left-behind villagers, especially the elderly, at risk of secondary infection," a doctor in Shaanxi province said in an article by regional news outlet Red Star News.

"If the anti-viral and other drugs were more abundant, I would be more confident," the doctor added.

As well as fever drugs and oxygen supplies, China's National Health Commission has said it would equip every village clinic with pulse oximeters, fingertip devices commonly used during the pandemic to quickly check oxygen levels.

TRAVEL RUSH

Beijing's main railway station has been packed with passengers leaving the capital in recent days, according to Reuters witnesses.

Ma, a 50-year-old labourer, said he felt there was little to worry about as he waited to board a train.

"There are many people who got COVID, but I have not been infected. It's quite good, I feel quite lucky," he told Reuters.

In China's most populous city, Shanghai, temporary night trains have been added to meet demand for travellers heading to the eastern Anhui province, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, arrivals in the gambling hub of Macau exceeded 55,000 on Saturday, the highest daily figure since the pandemic began.

In Hong Kong, the government has said it would increase the number of people who can pass through designated land border control points to the mainland to 65,000 per day from 50,000 between Jan. 18 and Jan. 21.

More than 2 billion trips across China are expected in the weeks around the holidays, its transport ministry has estimated.

ECONOMIC REVIVAL

The revival of travel in China has lifted expectations of a rebound in the world's second-largest economy, which is suffering its lowest growth rates in nearly half a century.

Those hopes helped lift Asian equity markets (.MIAPJ0000PUS) 0.9% on Monday, adding to gains of 4.2% last week.

China's blue-chip index (.CSI300) was up 2% while the yuan reached its highest since July. Global oil prices have also been supported on expectations of a recovery in demand from the world's top importer China.

The first in a slew of economic data due this week showed China's new home prices fell again in December as COVID-19 outbreaks hurt demand.

Other data on economic growth, retail sales and industrial output later in the week are certain to be dismal, but markets will likely look past that to how China's reopening could bolster global growth, analysts say.

"Our baseline scenario assumes nationwide infections will peak in late January," JP Morgan analysts said in a note on Monday.

The infection peak will catalyse a "sustainable" economic recovery from March onwards, with double-digit growth expected in the second quarter of the year, the analysts said.

China's full-year growth is likely to rebound to 4.9% in 2023, before steadying in 2024, a Reuters poll showed. (Reuters)

When Li's 83-year-old father with diabetes started coughing and complaining of body aches last month, the Beijing resident became anxious about finding a treatment for COVID-19 in case his parent had caught the virus sweeping the city.

He heard at that time that Pfizer's (PFE.N) anti-viral drug Paxlovid was an effective treatment, but patients could only get it prescribed if they were admitted to hospital, and only if the drug was in stock.

The first hospital they visited conducted a CT scan that showed his lungs were infected, but turned them away, saying no beds were available, said Li, who only gave his surname due to sensitivity over how authorities might view his account.

After two more days of frantic calls to families and friends, a contact finally found them a space at another hospital, but it took a further antigen test and second CT scan before it agreed to prescribe the drug.

With his father admitted to an intensive care unit, Li was worried that it had taken too long to get effective treatment.

"I’m not sure if Paxlovid can help him. I think it's because when he got the medicine he already had the virus for a week," Li told Reuters on Jan.12.

"Now we can do little but pray."

His father died the same day.

Li's experience, local media reports and online posts bear testimony to the difficulties faced obtaining Paxlovid in China through official channels.

Paxlovid - a combination of two anti viral drugs - is one of the few foreign oral treatments approved by Beijing and a clinical trial has found it to have reduced hospitalisations in high-risk patients by around 90%.

Having been approved in February last year, Paxlovid was scarcely used in China until December when the government started lifting its strict containment policy, and wave of COVID infections began to build.

RAMPING UP SUPPLIES

Chinese authorities have acknowledged that supplies of Paxlovid are still insufficient to meet demand, even as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said last week that thousands of courses of the treatment were shipped to the country last year and in the past couple of weeks millions more were shipped.

"Pfizer is actively collaborating with Chinese authorities and all stakeholders to secure an adequate supply of Paxlovid in China. We remain committed to fulfilling the COVID-19 treatment needs of Chinese patients and partnering with the Chinese government," the company said in a statement.

Racing to defend against a rising death toll, China has also approved Merck & Co's (MRK.N) COVID antiviral drug and is reviewing a treatment developed by Japan's Shionogi (4507.T).

Paxlovid is covered by state insurance -- albeit temporarily until the end of March -- meaning patients in theory would only need to pay 198 yuan ($29), a tenth of its usual price.

But China doesn't provide data on how many treatment courses are supplied and where it can be purchased, forcing most patients to rely on media reports, word-of-mouth or even importing through unauthorised channels in the grey market.

Those who do manage to find a supplier often end up paying exorbitant prices, as demand has shot up amid a giant wave of COVID-19 infections.

The official Guangzhou Daily reported that patients at the United Family Healthcare hospital in Guangdong were paying 6,000 yuan ($891) for health checks before being allowed to get Paxlovid priced at 2,300 yuan at the hospital.

The hospital did not immediately reply to a Reuters' request for comment.

Health data firm Airfinity estimated in December that China would need 49 million courses of the COVID treatment over the next five months, with over 22 million needed in January alone.

The Pfizer drug can be also purchased for 2,170 yuan with prescription via online platforms, but it typically sells out within seconds.

PAXLOVID GIFT

Several other people described to Reuters how they turned to the grey market to purchase Paxlovid. Some were looking to treat sick relatives, while others wanted it just in case.

Chen Jun, a resident of China's southern Hainan Province, said he bought Paxlovid from a supplier introduced by a business partner, who said the medicine was coming from Hong Kong.

Chen paid 20,000 yuan ($2,972) on Jan. 2 for two boxes for his elderly parents, who suffer from cancer, and he said that some people had paid double that price.

"You'll think it cheap once your family members are in need, because anything is better than going to a hospital now," he said. "I know people who paid 20,000 yuan for one box of the medicine."

Another buyer who gave his name as Ray said he managed to get two boxes from the United States, where supplies are still ample and a doctor's prescription can be obtained after an online consultation.

"It's very straightforward, they don't ask questions," he said. Having made the online purchase, he then asked a friend there to help courier it to China.

An analyst at a Chinese securities house, who requested anonymity because of sensitivities over the subject, said his boss went to Hong Kong to stock up on Paxlovid to gift clients as it was more valued than a popular, expensive liquor.

"It is a better gift than Moutai." (Reuters)