——（2023年1月5日《CGTN》）

Many hospitals in Beijing are experiencing a change of patient types, with more critically ill, but fewer suffering from fevers. CGTN's Dai Kaiyi visited Peking University Third Hospital to see how medical staff are adjusting.

Working overtime has become normal for Sun Yongchang and his respiratory department, as it takes in an overload of patients since last month. At its peak, the Peking Hospital Third Hospital he works for has been receiving as many as 1200 patients in a single day.

SUN YONGCHANG Director, Dept. of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Peking University Third Hospital "Recently, in order to deal with severe COVID cases, including the treatment of severe cases with aggravated underlying diseases after the infection, our hospital has adopted a series of countermeasures, such as converting ordinary wards into a sub-intensive care unit."

The sub-intensive care units have more medical equipment like monitors, ventilators, and recuperation facilities. Taking in more severe cases than usual is now possible for them.

DAI KAIYI Beijing "Hospital staff told me the number of COVID cases in the Chinese capital has pretty much plateaued for now and there are much less fever patients being admitted in recent days. The shift in conditions means they have to adapt treatment strategies as well."

TANG YIDA Assistant to the Dean Peking University Third Hospital "On the whole, I feel that the number of patients visiting the doctor has decreased compared with one or two weeks ago, but they mostly show serious symptoms, and the proportion of critically ill patients and elderly patients has increased significantly, so the number of patients who need life-saving treatment is also much higher than before."

Due to the increasing number of critically ill patients, the hospital expanded from a little over 200 beds to 823 beds. And they cannot let their guard down as fluctuations may still occur given the country will remove restrictions for international arrivals in just a few days.

TANG YIDA Assistant to the Dean Peking University Third Hospital "We assume that there could still be challenges after the reopening, so the prevention of severe illness must be put on the first priority, and the protection of the elderly must be the first."

Aside from patients suffering from COVID, another challenge facing the hospital is how to make sure cancer patients get chemotherapy, or kidney disease patients receive dialysis treatment, without any delay. To keep it functional regardless of COVID's impact, Su Chunyan and her colleagues began what they call "the third shift" late at night, separating patients to avoid cross-infection.

SU CHUNYAN Head Nurse of Department of Nephrology Peking University Third Hospital "After the adjustment of COVID control measures, we separated patients coming over for dialysis that are positive and negative to COVID as the number of patients became very large in mid-December, positive areas were expanded here to contain more patients in need. One of the most important principles is to separate positive patients from negative ones to minimize cross-infection and ensure normal dialysis for all our patients."

Working under strain, medical staff know this is the new normal, and letting up is not a option because they understand just how essential their role is to patients and their families. DKY, CGTN, Beijing.

呼吸与危重症医学科孙永昌、心血管内科唐熠达、肾内科苏春燕等介绍我如何全力以赴救治重症患者和特殊人群患者。