China braced to see whether ‘golden week’ holiday will lead to resurgence of Covid-19 cases
- Leading epidemiologist tells state broadcaster that the early signs are promising but scientists will need to watch the situation over the next 10 days
- More than 600 million domestic trips were made across China during the eight-day national holiday
China is closely watching to see whether a recent national holiday that saw tens of millions people travelling within the country will see a resurgence of Covid-19 cases, a leading scientist has said.
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the “golden week” would prove a major test for the country’s preventive work.
“I have been paying attention to the coronavirus case report every day and I can make a rudimentary judgment that we have passed this test,” Wu told the state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday.
“But since the virus has a [long] incubation period, we need to observe for around 10 days before we reach a final conclusion,” he added.
The holiday, which started on National Day, October 1, and ran until Thursday, saw 637 million domestic trips, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
No locally transmitted Covid-19 cases were reported during this period and 122 new cases came from overseas, according to the National Health Commission.
