China pays elderly up to £60 to get Covid vaccine as industrial area records 1 million cases

Chinese authorities are going door to door and paying older citizens as much as £60 to have a Covid vaccination amid a surge in cases following the lifting of draconian restrictions.

Zhejiang, a big industrial province near Shanghai, is battling around a million new daily Covid-19 infections, with numbers expected to double.

However, doubts are mounting among health experts and residents about Beijing’s statistics, which show no new Covid deaths reported for six days through Sunday as the virus is feared to be spreading largely unchecked.

Some experts have forecast between 1 million and 2 million deaths in China before the end of 2023.

China kept case numbers low for two years with a “zero-Covid” strategy that isolated cities and confined millions of people to their homes. Now, as it relaxes that approach, it is facing the widespread outbreaks that other countries have already gone through.

The country’s healthcare system has been under enormous strain, with staff being asked to work while sick and retired medical workers in rural communities being rehired to help, according to state media.

“The hospital is just overwhelmed from top to bottom,” Howard Bernstein, a doctor at the Beijing United Family Hospital, said.

Meanwhile, there are serious concerns over vaccination rates. More than 90 per cent of the Chinese population is vaccinated with locally-made vaccines. However, only about two thirds of those over 80 have been jabbed, according to the National Health Commission.

According to its 2020 census, China has 191 million people aged 65 and over – a group that, on its own, would be the eighth most populous country, ahead of Bangladesh.

Reports said many senior citizens are alarmed by stories of fevers, blood clots and other side effects.

“When people hear about such incidents, they may not be willing to take the vaccines,” Li Liansheng, 64, who had been vaccinated before he caught Covid, told the Associated Press.

In response, Chinese authorities are going door to door to offer vaccines to elderly, who are at most risk of hospitalisation if infected.

The Liulidun neighbourhood of the Chinese capital is promising people over 60 up to 500 yuan (£60) to get a two-dose vaccination course and one booster.

Jiang Shibo, of the Fudan University medical school in Shanghai, said: “Now, the families and relatives of the elderly people should make it clear to them that an infection can cause serious illness and even death.”

Additional reporting by agencies