Beijing sees declining outpatient, emergent treatment demands

The overall medical demand in Beijing has been declining steadily amid the recent COVID-19 infections, local authorities said Friday.

Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said at a press conference that patients admitted to fever clinics dropped from the peak of 73,000 on December 15, 2022, to 12,000 on Wednesday, and the number of emergency admissions fell from the peak of 52,000 on December 30, 2022, to the current 42,000.

Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing municipal disease prevention and control centre, said the XBB and BQ.1 subvariants of Omicron have not become prevalent according to their monitoring, while the BF.7 and BA.5.2 are still the dominant sub-strains at present.