High heat has fallen on China’s covid-wearing covid-19 health workers

It’s a summer that has seen temperature records being jumped around the world.

China’s health workers are particularly affected, and they are constantly struggling Heat waves They are wrapped head to toe in protective gear as they continue to test the masses. covid19, Amid a seemingly endless series of outbreaks.

Wearing hazmat suits in the local “big white”, an army of workers, the responsibility of enforcement China Zero-Covid Policy has been languishing in temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for much of this year.

“The conditions inside are airtight,” Shanghai health expert Joshua Liu told NBC News by phone last month. “Once the suit is in, we can’t eat, drink or go to the bathroom.”

Liu, who helped medical staff collect samples for Covid tests and record residents’ data, said the staff were “drenched in sweat” and had “wrinkled fingers and palms”.

“I can feel my skin breathing and sweating,” he said. “Every day when I finally get off work, all I want to do is take a shower and go to bed.”

The use of the “Great White” has been the focus of much attention in the past month Video Nurse Chunhua Xi lying on a bed in an emergency room swinging her legs went viral on Chinese social media after being released by authorities in Nanchang County in eastern Jiangxi Province.

Dressed in protective clothing, Chunhua has been undergoing tests for Covid at the Nanchang County Public Hospital for several days, suffering from heat stroke and fainting, the caption on the video said. Temperatures were just over 100 degrees outside the facility, the video said.

Although he later recovered, the video sparked outrage online and was later removed by authorities.

But then it was widely shared and viewed by millions of people. WeiboChina’s largest microblogging site, and other social media channels where some have accused the government of incompetence.

“Big White” has become a regular sight at Covid testing sites as health workers follow guidelines on protective clothing issued by China’s National Health Commission in January 2020. The outbreak of covid in the city of Wuhan.

In Shanghai, Liu said he and his colleagues regularly wore body coverings Shanghai’s two-month covid lockdown Between March and May, authorities, following China’s uncompromising “zero Covid” policy, closed schools, malls, convenience stores and gyms, and suspended bus, subway and ferry services in the city.

In the following months, Liu said he and his colleagues helped conduct mass searches and searches while residents were barred from leaving and entering their homes. Strict quarantine requirements.

But as soon as the summer months arrive, the temperature rises China It started to rise and the mercury regularly hits 100 degrees in Shanghai. Temperatures have hit 104 degrees seven times in the mall of 25 million so far, surpassing the record five days set in 2013.

As a result, heatstroke began to go viral on Chinese social media, with people discussing symptoms that include headaches, vomiting and fever, or in more severe cases, people may go into convulsions or coma.

For Janice Ho, a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, it was “a good thing” that people were looking for the term because it helped them “become more aware that heat really has implications for mortality”.

Currently, when the core body temperature reaches 100 degrees, “your body is too hot to function and your body can lose control,” added Ho, whose research focuses on heat and public health. “That’s when he becomes deadly. It’s too dangerous to die by him.”

Several people died in the extreme heat, including a 56-year-old construction worker in Xi’an. He was admitted to the hospital with a body temperature of 109.4 degrees and died in July of multiple organ failure and severe heatstroke. China Youth Daily He reported.

After Chunwa’s video was released, China’s National Center for Infectious Diseases published an article saying that “wearing protective clothing (commonly known as ‘big white’) … can greatly increase the risk of heat stroke. Instead, medical staff should wear lighter and more breathable surgical gowns.” They are advised to wear it.

But the temperature has continued to rise since then and on August 12. first A “high temperature red alert” has been issued by the China National Meteorological Center. That means four or more states have recorded temperatures above 100 degrees in a 48-hour period and more than 10 states are expected to hit between 100 and 108 degrees.

It lasted for 12 days until August 23.

For Ho, this shows that extreme heat should be taken just as seriously as other extreme weather.

“There are drastic measures taken to prevent people from being exposed to hurricanes or rainstorms, but we don’t treat heat the same way,” she said.