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China reports thousands of Covid deaths in 1 week, amid estimates 80 per cent of population has been infected
- The country’s hospitals reported almost 13,000 deaths in the week from January 13
- Leading expert downplays fears of second wave soon, saying most people have already been infected
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Luna Sunin Beijing
China reported almost 13,000 Covid-19 deaths in one week, while a leading epidemiologist said around 80 per cent of Chinese had already been infected so a second wave was unlikely in the near future.
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The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday that the death toll related to Covid-19 in hospitals reached 12,658 in the seven days between January 13 and 19.
The country had previously reported nearly 60,000 deaths between December 8 and January 12 after the abrupt ending of the zero-Covid policy.
Separately, Wu Zunyou, the CDC’s chief epidemiologist, played down concerns about a second wave in the next few months while also calling for caution over the elderly and other vulnerable groups over the Lunar New Year holiday.
“The massive social mobility during Chinese New Year could accelerate the spread of the pandemic to a certain extent, and the number of infected people will increase in some areas,” Wu wrote in a post on the social media site Weibo on Saturday.
But because the latest wave had infected about 80 per cent of the people in the country there was little possibility of a large-scale epidemic rebound or a second wave of cases in the next two to three months, Wu said.
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