The director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday that 80% of the Chinese population contracted Covid-19 during the wave of infections that followed the end of the ‘zero Covid’ policy.
With the recent population estimate from the authorities that points to some 1,411.75 million inhabitants by the end of 2022, the percentage advanced by Wu Zunyou would place the number of cases at 1,129.4 million.
The figure exceeds the estimate advanced a little over a week ago by a Peking University study, which pointed to some 900 million infections by January 11.
In a message posted on the Weibo social network, equivalent to Twitter, Wu based himself on this data to predict that the risk of a second wave of infections in the next two to three months is “very small.”
Regarding the risk of the “five thousand displacements” planned for the first new lunar year in recent years without anti-covid restrictions, the epidemiologist acknowledged that the number of infections could increase in some areas, but ruled out a “large-scale impact” . .
In recent weeks, the veracity of the figures advanced by the Chinese authorities has been questioned, which acknowledge the death of some 73,000 people with Covid in hospitals between December 8 and January 19.
However, this balance contrasts with other estimates, such as that of the British health analysis company Airfinity, which anticipated that the number of daily deaths from Covid-19 in China could reach 36,000 during the New Year holidays.
In early December, the Chinese authorities ended nearly three years of the ‘covid zero’ policy, which included mass testing, quarantine in government-designated facilities, the use of contact tracing apps and border closures. from the country. .
Source: TSF
