As immunity from previous covid infections wanes, the number of new infections is believed to rise significantly in China, reports Bloomberg.
The authorities are now struggling to fill the stocks with vaccines that can withstand new, tougher mutations of the omicron virus variant. Above all, the variant called XBB has fueled an increase in the number of new cases of the disease in the country since the end of April.
According to the coronavirus specialist Zhong Nanshan 40 million Chinese a week are expected to be infected by the end of May. The wave is then estimated to reach its peak a month later, with around 65 million cases of illness at the end of June, local media reports.
In January — shortly after Beijing hastily scrapped the country’s previously draconian virus restrictions — another Omicron variant was causing around 37 million infections a day in China. The virus wave led to huge vaccination queues as well as overcrowded hospitals and crematoria in the giant country, where the vaccination rate is relatively low. Several new vaccines allegedly targeting the XBB variant are now being prepared in China, according to Bloomberg.
2023-05-24 07:19:44
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