Shanghai is being gripped by China’s massive Covid wave, leading to a surge in hospitalisations and crowded funeral homes.

Local health officials said last week that up to 70 per cent of the city’s 26 million residents had been infected, and they expressed confidence that its outbreak had peaked.

But many of the city’s hospitals are still overcrowded, particularly with older people. Funeral homes have been inundated with mourners.

Infections soared across China late last year, and the government abruptly lifted its strict, but ultimately futile, Covid restrictions in early December. Shanghai endured one of China’s most gruelling lockdowns last spring, with residents confined to their homes for more than two months.

China’s current wave of infections has been fuelled by a lack of immunity in the population, most of which was not exposed to the coronavirus for years because of the country’s strict controls. In addition, many older adults never received a full course of vaccines or booster shots.

The following photographs capture the grief and anxiety that swept across Shanghai over the weekend, beginning with this image of patients being taken to the emergency room of a Shanghai hospital.

People deliver patients to the emergency room of a hospital in Shanghai on January 6. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

Patients in the lobby of a hospital in Shanghai. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

A patient in a hallway at a hospital in Shanghai, January 6. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

Patients in a hallway at a hospital in Shanghai on January 7. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

A funeral procession in Shanghai on January 8. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

A woman stands next to a body on a gurney in the courtyard of a hospital in Shanghai. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

A woman is comforted as she grieves outside a funeral home in Shanghai. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

Mourners outside a funeral home in Shanghai. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

Patients in a hallway at a Shanghai hospital, January 6. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

Family members stand next to the body of a relative in the courtyard of a hospital in Shanghai. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

Patients in a hallway at a hospital in Shanghai. Photo / Qilai Shen, The New York Times

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: David Pierson

Photographs by: Qilai Shen

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