And that number could soon double, reaching 2 million daily infections. Since Beijing largely abandoned its “zero Covid” policy, there has been panic at the meters. Point.
China’s Zhejiang province, a key industrial region near Shanghai, is grappling with around a million new Covid-19 infections every day, a number expected to double in the coming days, the provincial government said on Sunday. Despite a record spike in cases in the country, China has reported no deaths from Covid-19 in the past five days, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.
However, the population and pandemic specialists want access to more accurate data due to the increase in infection numbers since Beijing largely abandoned its “zero Covid” policy, leading to the containment of hundreds of millions of Chinese and a sharp economic slowdown.
Soon 2 million new cases per day?
China’s national figures are now incomplete because the National Health Commission has stopped reporting asymptomatic infections, making cases harder to track. China’s health commission, which had published daily figures on Covid-19 cases for about three years, said it would stop publishing such data from Sunday.
However, Zhejiang is among a few regions that continue to provide data on recent spikes in infection, including asymptomatic cases. “It is estimated that the peak of the infection will arrive in Zhejiang earlier and will enter a high-level period around New Year’s Day when the daily number of new infections may reach two million,” the Zhejiang government official said in a statement Explanation.
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China has also narrowed its definition of Covid-19 deaths, counting only those suffering from pneumonia or respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus, prompting skepticism among global health experts. The World Health Organization has not received data on new Covid-19 hospitalizations from China since Beijing eased its restrictions. According to the organization, this lack of data could be related to authorities struggling to identify cases in the world’s most populous country.
All regions not currently affected by a major Covid-19 wave will soon be
“China is going into the most dangerous weeks of the pandemic,” says a study by the research institute Capital Economics. The approach of the Lunar New Year in January, during which many people travel to reunite with their families, is also expected to worsen the situation on the pandemic front. “Authorities are now making almost no effort to slow the spread of infection, and with the start of the evictions ahead of the Lunar New Year, it will soon be all areas not currently affected by a major Covid-19 wave,” it said Institute .
The cities of Qingdao and Dongguan have both recently estimated the number of daily Covid-19 infections at tens of thousands. According to state media, the country’s healthcare system is overwhelmed: sick officials have been called to work and retired healthcare workers have been requisitioned.