What is 80% of 1.4 billion people? 1.12 billion. This is the number of Chinese who have been infected with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, even if the country only ended its “zero Covid” policy in early December 2022.
This figure was given on Saturday by a leading government scientist, Wu Zunyou, reports the Reuters news agency. Consequently, he believes that the possibility of a major epidemic outbreak in the next two or three months in his country is remote, since the Chinese New Year festivities begin this Saturday.
New year, new wave?
If this figure is true, and although vaccination is China’s great weakness, 280 million people are still potentially at risk. Not to mention that a first infection does not completely prevent future reinfections.
The strong recovery from the epidemic in the country is explained by the sudden lifting in early December of almost all anti-Covid measures. Since the beginning of the epidemic, China has lived almost under glass, imposing drastic sanitary measures on its inhabitants.
With the Lunar New Year this weekend, the situation is likely to get worse. Mass movements of people could spread the virus and increase infections in some regions, especially in less equipped rural areas. But for the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Wu Zunyou, a wave of covid-19 is unlikely any time soon.
Another Reuters report tells us that the deputy prime minister told state media on Thursday night that the virus was currently at a “relatively low” level. Other health officials also reportedly said the number of patients hospitalized in intensive care wards with Covid-19 infection was declining.
After having refused for a long time to communicate reliable data (which had greatly annoyed the WHO), the Chinese health authorities had ended up announcing on January 14 the death of 60,000 people in one month. Three days earlier, Beijing claimed that only 37 Covid-19-related deaths had been recorded during this period.
Source: BFM TV
