By Siyi Liu and Eduardo Baptista
BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) – The streets of major Chinese cities remained eerily quiet on Sunday as people stayed at home to protect themselves from the surge in COVID-19 cases that hit urban centers from north to south.
China is in the first of three waves of COVID cases expected this winter, according to the country’s chief epidemiologist Wu Zunyou. There will be more as people continue the tradition of returning to their homelands for the Lunar New Year holiday next month.
China has not reported any COVID deaths since Dec. 7, when it abruptly ended most restrictions of a zero-tolerance COVID policy following unprecedented public outcry. The strategy had been supported by President Xi Jinping.
As part of the easing of restrictions, mass testing for the virus has ended, casting doubt on whether the official case numbers reflect the full extent of the outbreak. China reported about 2,097 new symptomatic cases of COVID infection on Dec. 17.
In Beijing, the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant has already affected services ranging from restaurants to package delivery.
Even the funeral homes and crematoria in this city of 22 million people are struggling to keep up with demand due to understaffing and sick leave of workers and drivers.
At Beijing’s largest funeral home, located in Babaoshan, which is also known for handling the bodies of senior Chinese officials and leaders, several hearses were seen entering on Sunday, while the parking lot for private cars was also full.
“At the moment it is difficult to book a hearse, so many family members transport the body by their own means,” said an employee on condition of anonymity.
Smoke rose from the crematorium ovens, where groups of people had gathered to collect the ashes of the deceased. It wasn’t immediately clear to what extent the rise in COVID-related deaths was responsible.
Social media posts also showed empty subways in the northwestern Chinese city of Xian, while Shanghai, the country’s commercial hub, lacked the usual New Year’s bustle.
“The party vibes are missing,” said one resident who gave her name as Alice.
In Chengdu, streets were deserted but food delivery times were improving, a resident surnamed Zhang said, after services began to adjust to the recent surge in cases.
However, antigen test kits were still hard to come by, he said, explaining that he had been told they had been diverted to hospitals.
ONE PEAK, THREE WAVES AND THREE MONTHS
In Shanghai, authorities have said schools should move most classes online starting Monday, and in nearby Hangzhou, most school years have been encouraged to end the winter semester early.
In Guangzhou, which has online classes, students are not expected to prepare to go back to school, the education bureau said.
Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, chief epidemiologist Wu of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the current epidemic would peak this winter and develop in three waves over about three months, according to what was reported by the state media about his speech. .
The first wave would run from mid-December to mid-January, mostly in cities, before a second from late January to mid-February next year, triggered by the movement of people ahead of the New Year holiday week.
China will celebrate the Lunar New Year starting January 21. Typically, hundreds of millions of people return home to spend time with their families.
A third wave of cases is expected between late February and mid-March, with a return to work after the holidays, according to Wu.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Dominique Patton, Ryan Woo, Eduardo Baptista and Brenda Goh;
