The hospital said the student died as a result of a cardiac condition but posts online said the student had been working for days despite having a persistent fever – claims the hospital denied, according to news portal The Paper.

A graduate medical student in Nanjing confirmed that a protest took place on Monday night in front of the Jiangsu People’s Hospital. There were about 100 people, mostly graduate students from Nanjing schools, he said.

They mainly wanted three things: protection against Covid-19; to be free to go home for the winter holidays; and for those who stay to be paid at the same level as staff doctors.

The students are in a graduate programme similar to a residency in the United States, but instead of taking part after graduating medical school they must balance study and full-time work. Because they are technically students, they are only paid a small stipend, up to 1,000 yuan (US$143) a month.

There had long been complaints among residents over the low pay, heavy workload and few holidays, the student said, but the recent opening up and intensifying Covid-19 outbreak had triggered this outcry.

“You can’t let a student work the front lines without protection, such as masks, or without making plans on what happens if they become infected,” he said.

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Some of the issues cited have been remedied after a few days of gatherings. According to a message seen by the Post, the Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital agreed to offer students who stay a one-time stipend of 10,000 yuan.

The residency programme would not be interrupted, the message said, but students who stayed on would be able to rest over the holidays. The hospital would ensure they received the same protective gear as official medical staff while trying to avoid giving them dangerous jobs.

Another text message from Nanjing University medical school to hospitals said work for clinical students would be temporarily halted while they “improve Covid control measures”.

A Wuhan doctor said students at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology had protested last week and the school agreed to let them leave for the winter holidays.

Others pointed out their small triumph on social media this week, with individuals saying they were already on their way home.

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Patients in China hooked up to IV drips in their own cars as clinics are full

Patients in China hooked up to IV drips in their own cars as clinics are full

But the deep-running issue is far from fixed, the Wuhan doctor noted. In the next few months, he said he expected the Covid-19 situation would get worse and hospitals would bear the brunt.

“When I went to work today, the doctors and nurses around me had fevers, the patients and their families had fevers, it was quite scary,” he said.

He said hospitals should better rotate their staff and empty wards for those who needed help but so far he did not consider arrangements satisfactory.

According to local media reports, the central province of Henan has asked medical institutes to cancel all staff holidays until the end of March to ensure there is someone on duty at all times to ensure treatment for patients.

“The effects of the A4 protests will be long-lasting, not only because it made people realise that taking a risk to stand up to government abuses can actually work, but also made them see that there are way more people than they thought who share the same feelings and ideas as they do,” she said.

Asia on alert for new Covid-19 strains as China reopens

Other students from different medical schools across the country also expressed similar demands.

Chinese media reported that a similar protest to the Nanjing demonstration took place at Kunming Medical University in Yunnan province, southwestern China, earlier this week.

Those who could not make it offline expressed their demands on social media. “North Sichuan Medical College, let me go home!” one such post said.

By the end of the week, most of their hashtags had been scrubbed from Weibo.