After zero-Covid: what now for China following massive wave of infection?

A massive wave of infection that struck more than a billion people in China in around a month late last year after it abruptly abandoned its zero-Covid strategy has waned, with experts now expecting a succession of smaller, less severe waves.

But as vaccination momentum declines, some remain concerned about the susceptibility of elderly people to increasingly transmissible variants of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

Demand for treatment at Chinese fever clinics peaked on December 23 and remained at a low level late last month, according to official statistics, while the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals peaked on January 5 and had since declined consistently.

“Our nationwide immunity is now at a high level, so there is little chance for another wave to occur in the coming few months,” the chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Wu Zunyou, said on Thursday.

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China says Covid outbreak has peaked as Lunar New Year travel rush returns in full swing

China says Covid outbreak has peaked as Lunar New Year travel rush returns in full swing

He said the coronavirus had been mutating but there was a low possibility that new strains or subvariants would be more transmissible or deadly than the current ones.

The massive wave witnessed in China in December was dominated by the BA.5 and BF.7 Omicron subvariants that were prevalent in the rest of the world when China was still resorting to frequent lockdowns and mass testing.

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