CHENGDU: On Wednesday, Chinese hospitals and funeral homes were under intense strain as a COVID-19 outbreak depleted resources, while the scope of the outbreak and doubts about official data prompted some countries to consider new travel restrictions for Chinese visitors.

China began dismantling the world's strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and extensive testing this month, putting its battered economy on track for a full re-opening next year.

According to some international health experts, the lifting of restrictions, which came after widespread protests, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and likely infecting millions of people every day.

The speed with which China, the world's last major country to treat the virus as endemic, has scrapped COVID rules has left its fragile health system overwhelmed.

China reported three new COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, up from one on Monday – figures that contradict what funeral homes are reporting, as well as the experience of much smaller countries after they reopened.

Staff at Huaxi, a big hospital in the southwestern city of Chengdu, said they were "extremely busy" caring for COVID patients. "I`ve been doing this job for 30 years and this is the busiest I have ever known it," said one ambulance driver outside the hospital who declined to be identified. There were long queues inside and outside the hospital`s emergency department and at an adjacent fever clinic on Tuesday evening. “Almost all of the patients have COVID,” one emergency department pharmacy staff member said.

“There have been so many deaths from COVID lately,” one worker said. China has said it only counts deaths of COVID patients caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure as COVID-related. Zhang Yuhua, an official at the Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, said most recent patients were elderly and critically ill with underlying diseases. She said the number of patients receiving emergency care had increased to 450-550 per day, from about 100 before, according to state media. The China-Japan Friendship Hospital`s fever clinic in Beijing was also "packed" with grey-haired patients, state media reported.

Some cities have been struggling to secure supplies of anti-fever drugs. In a major step towards freer travel, China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine from Jan. 8, authorities said this week, prompting many Chinese, cut off from the world for so long, to check travel platforms.

Moreover, some governments were considering extra travel requirements for Chinese visitors. U.S. officials cited "the lack of transparent data" as the reason for doing so. India and Japan would require a negative COVID test for travellers from mainland China, with those testing positive in Japan having to undergo a week in quarantine.

Tokyo also plans to limit airlines increasing flights to China. The Philippines was also considering imposing tests". China`s $17 trillion economy is expected to suffer a slowdown in factory output and domestic consumption as workers and shoppers fall ill. It did not specify a reason.

Once the initial shock of new infections passes, some economists expect Chinese growth to bounce back with a vengeance from what is expected to be its lowest rate in nearly half a century, somewhere around 3%.

Morgan Stanley economists expect 5.4% growth in 2023, while those at Goldman Sachs see 5.2%.