Medical staffs check nucleic acid test samples in an air-inflated mobile COVID-19 test lab set up in Guangzhou Gymnasium, Guangzhou, capital city of south China’s Guangdong Province, June 3, 2021.Photo:China News Service

 Some 10-12 percent of the COVID-19 patients in the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province, are critically ill, Guan Xiangdong, a specialist in the Guangdong COVID-19 medical team, told the media on Thursday.

The proportion is higher than in the epidemic in Wuhan, and the following 20 regional clusters that took place across China, in which the proportion was usually 2-3 percent, 5-8 percent or “8-10 percent in a few areas,” Guan said to China Central Television (CCTV) on Thursday.

The relatively high proportion of severe and critically ill cases was probably caused by the highly pathogenic viral strains that spread in this wave of the epidemic in Guangzhou, Guan said.

Many of the COVID-19 patients in Guangzhou are senior citizens whose condition deteriorated quickly, Zhang Zhongde, a specialist in the local medical team, told CCTV on Thursday. “[Some patients] progressed into a severe or critically ill stage within only three or four days after the onset of symptoms,” Zhang said.

Also, patients in Guangzhou this time have more obvious symptoms, with about 80 percent having had a fever, said Zhang. The patients have “a very high” viral load, and it decreases “at a very slow speed,” he said.

Guangzhou had reported 119 local COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday, since the latest wave of the epidemic resurgence in this city started on May 21. The reported cases included 113 confirmed patients and seven silent carriers, local authorities said on Thursday.