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China: Peak COVID cases exceeded 7 million daily, over 4,000 deaths a day

Country's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says peak of new infections was reached on January 4 as prominent scientist reports that 80 percent of country's 1.4 billion population has already been infected.

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China has passed the peak of Covid patients in fever clinics, emergency rooms and with critical conditions, a National Health Commission official said last week.

China's daily new Covid-19 infections hit a peak of more than seven million per day around December 22, while deaths reached a daily peak of more than 4,000 on January 4, the country's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The figures, published on the centre's website on Wednesday, come after a prominent government scientist said over the weekend that 80 percent of China's 1.4 billion population has already been infected, making the possibility of a big Covid-19 rebound over the next two or three months remote.

"Around December 22, 2022, the number of infected people and the number of fever outpatient consultations reached a peak," it said with the number of new infections "exceeding 7 million per day and the number of daily fever outpatient consultations peaking at 2.867 million".

China has passed the peak of Covid patients in fever clinics, emergency rooms and with critical conditions, a National Health Commission official said last week.

Nearly 60,000 people with Covid had died in hospitals as of January 12, roughly a month after China abruptly dismantled its strict zero-Covid policy, according to government data.

But some experts said that figure probably vastly undercounts the full impact, as it excludes those who die at home and because many doctors have said they are discouraged from citing Covid as a cause of death.

Tens of millions of people have travelled across the country in recent days for long-awaited reunions with families to mark last Sunday's Lunar New Year, raising worries of another possible wave.

China's transport authorities have predicted that more than two billion trips will be made this month into February, in one of the world's largest mass movements of people.

President Xi Jinping Wednesday expressed concerns over the spread of the virus in rural China, much of which lacks medical resources.

But a top health official said China would not experience a second wave of infections in the months after the festive migration, because of nearly 80 percent herd immunity.

SOURCE: TRTWorld and agencies