80% of China's population infected with COVID-19 amid Lunar New Year celebrations: Report

An estimated 80% of China's population has been infected with the novel coronavirus, nearly eight in 10 people, a government scientist has claimed. The chances of the COVID-19 rebound would be negligible in the next two or three months as nearly 80% of the population of China has already been infected by the virus, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou, said on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform. The resurge of new infections occurred as Chinese citizens have been travelling extensively over the Chinese Lunar New Year. 

"On Saturday, the eve of the Lunar New Year, that the present wave of the epidemic has already infected about 80% of the people in the country of 1.4 billion people," chief epidemiologist of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zunyou, was heard as saying. 

A  large-scale COVID-19 rebound

There has been a significant surge in the onslaught of the novel coronavirus patients admitted to emergency rooms at hospitals, with COVID-19 symptoms. The medical systems in China is "overwhelmed," claimed another National Health Commission official.

As per the National Health Commission data, an estimated 60,000 patients have died in hospitals as of the month of January this week. The cases surged uncontrollably as the Chinese government scrapped the draconian Zero-Covid policy and lifted the lockdowns. “In the next two to three months, the possibility of a large-scale COVID-19 rebound or a second wave of infections across the country is very small,” Wu said in the video. 

Meanwhile, according to China’s Ministry of Transport estimates, over 2 billion Chinese nationals will travel abroad during the 40-day Lunar New Year for family reunions, which could see an upsurge in COVID-19 infections. More than 26 million Chinese passengers took trips on the eve of the Lunar New Year, as per the data released by the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

This figure was double as compared to the number of Chinese who travelled in 2019. The Chinese state broadcaster further noted that 4.1 million people have been travelling via train and 756,000 people by air ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Even as a Chinese Health Commission official makes claims that nearly 80% of the Chinese population has been infected, the Chinese health authorities reportedly said that the coronavirus hospitalizations have declined since late December, and cases have slumped early January.