Residents in Haidian district, Beijing line up for vaccination on March 27, 2021. Photo: VCG

The local confirmed elderly COVID-19 patients in the latest flare-up in Beijing may develop severe conditions due to them having multiple underlying diseases such as hypertension, malignant tumor and coronary heart disease, Beijing health officials said. 

Chen Xiaoyou, deputy head of Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University said at Tuesday's press conference that most locally confirmed infections of COVID-19 related to other provinces reported in the latest flare-up in Beijing are senior citizens who have multiple underlying diseases. 

According to Chen, among the 17 confirmed patients, 16 are aged between 61 and 69, while the other one patient is 57 years old. 

Fourteen of these infected persons have diabetes, hypertension, malignant tumors, coronary heart disease and other underlying diseases. 

At present, all are at the early stage of the disease since it has been less than a week since they first showed symptoms. Among them, 10 have fevers including one who has a fever of over 40 C, and 14 patients' chest CT results showed definite lung lesions. 

Based on these characteristics, the expert group's evaluation suggested that the conditions of these patients are at risk of progressing and some infections may become severe. 

Since they were hospitalized, four patients have progressed into average patients from light condition, while one has developed into a severe patient from average. 

Beijing reported no new infections as of 3 pm on Tuesday. As of Monday, a total of 27 positive infections are receiving treatment at the Beijing Ditan Hospital including eight imported cases and 19 local infections related to other provinces. Among the 19 infections, two are silent carriers and 17 are confirmed cases 

Global Times