Chinese officials estimate that around 250 million citizens were infected with the coronavirus in the first 20 days of December, reports Financial Times 23. December.
The Beijing authorities decided in early December to change the policy. For three years, the country managed to put a stop to the development of the infection.
On Tuesday alone, 37 million people were said to have been infected with the coronavirus. The data was revealed by Sun Yang, deputy director of the China Center for Epidemics and Disease Prevention, two sources who attended the meeting told the Financial Times.
Sun says the scale of the infection is still rising and estimated at the meeting that more than half of the population of Beijing and Schezuan are already infected.
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– Does not participate in tests
Last week, the Chinese authorities acknowledged that the number of registered corona cases it no longer reflected the real number.
– Many asymptomatic people no longer participate in testing, so it’s impossible to get an accurate overview of how many are infected without symptoms, says China’s National Health Commission (NHC) website.
The only cases of the infection that will be logged are those discovered in public testing centers, according to the message.
The announcement comes after Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan said the infection was rapidly increasing in the capital, Beijing.
Authorities recently lifted the requirement for mass testing and stopped sending anyone who tests positive to public quarantine centers. Anyone with milder symptoms is now being advised to self-isolate at home.
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WATCH VIDEO: This is how easily false corona fears can be spread
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– The coronavirus is still spreading in Norway
Nettavisen last week asked Espen Rostrup Nakstad, deputy director of health, whether “releasing the infection” in China could be the key to ending the pandemic.
– For covid-19 to become a disease that no longer spreads like a pandemic, but like a seasonal virus, we depend on good population immunity worldwide. Enhanced immunity in China therefore plays an important role for the immunity of the global population, the deputy director of health replies in an email.
– If we ignore China’s authoritarian policy, should they have done like Norway and other countries and “released the infection” much sooner?
– The coronavirus is still spreading in most countries in repeated waves, even in Norway, so I don’t think the increase in immunization in China in the coming months represents a delay in the final phase of the pandemic. We don’t yet know when the coronavirus will stabilize as a seasonal virus, but it will likely happen gradually beyond 2023 and 2024, Nakstad says.
The United States fears the Chinese virus
As of Thursday, US authorities have said yes fears mutations from China’s corona epidemic.
– We want the current epidemic in China to be addressed.
Ned Price, spokesman for the US State Department, said this during a press conference on Monday. according to BloombergNews.
– We know that when the virus spreads in nature, it has the potential to mutate at any time and pose a threat to people around the world, Price said.
– China currently has probably up to one million cases of infection and up to 5,000 daily coronavirus-related deaths, he wrote Bloomberg News Thursday.
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They refer to new analyzes by the British analyst firm Airfinity.
Official figures from Chinese authorities are far lower, with 2,966 new cases recorded on Wednesday and ten coronavirus-related deaths since early December.
Shanghai could be hit hard
Half of Shanghai residents are expected to be infected with covid by the new year. A hospital in Shanghai has told staff to prepare for “a tragic battle” and expect to be infected with the coronavirus, which is spreading uncontrollably in China.
– It won’t be safe on Christmas and New Years. In this tragic battle, the whole of greater Shanghai will fall and all hospital staff will be infected. We will infect families, all patients. We have no choice and we cannot avoid it,” Shanghai Deji Hospital wrote on its WeChat account.
Read also: Great pressure on Chinese hospitals after eased infection control
Reuters he writes that the hospital estimates that 12.5 million of Shanghai’s 25 million population will be infected by the end of the year. This comes after China suddenly eased most of its corona restrictions earlier this month. Until then, the country’s inhabitants had had to get used to entire neighborhoods subjected to severe lockdowns, long quarantines and frequent mass testing.
The sudden opening has overwhelmed a vulnerable healthcare system. Additionally, there are relatively low vaccination rates, particularly among the elderly. Also, China has not used the mRNA vaccines that were in use in the West.
Analysis by London firm Airfinity shows China may have up to a million corona cases a day, writes Bloomberg.
The figure could rise to several million a day in the coming months. The death toll is harder to predict, as Chinese authorities have a narrow definition of what counts as a corona death.
