Last Updated: December 21, 2022, 13:27 IST
A patient is wheeled into the fever clinic at a hospital in Beijing on December 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
China will face the third wave from late February to mid-March after people returned to work from the holidays, the expert said
As China struggles with Covid infections and overwhelmed crematoriums, epidemiologists have predicted at least three waves of the virus to hit the country from January.
Though China has not reported any death due to Covid-19 for previous day, hospitals are struggling, pharmacy shelves are stripped bare and crematoriums are overwhelmed in the wake of the Chinese government’s sudden decision to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing.
Though the Xi Jinping government has so far remained silent on the number of deaths, the Chinese authorities have warned of successive waves of Covid infections in the coming months, as cases continue to increase after lifting restrictions, The Hong Kong Post reported, according to ANI.
“The current outbreak would peak this winter and run in three waves for about three months,” Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, reportedly said at a press conference in Beijing.
“The first wave would run from now until mid-January. A second wave would likely follow soon after, triggered by the mass travel of hundreds of millions of people across the country for the Lunar New Year starting on 21 January,” he added.
He added that China will face the third wave from late February to mid-March after people returned to work from the holidays. The Covid wave in February will likely be triggered by the mass travel ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on January 21 as people travel to their hometowns to celebrate the day.
The Chinese experts have said that though people are infected with the Omicron variant, the main cause of death remains underlying diseases.
Beijing last week admitted the scale of the outbreak has become “impossible” to track following the end of mandatory mass testing.
A leading Chinese health expert also warned that the capital will face a surge in cases over the next two weeks, which will continue until the end of January.
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