A top official said on Monday that nearly 90% of people in China’s third-largest province are now infected with Covid-19, as the country battles an unprecedented rise in cases.
“As of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89.0pc,” Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, stated at a press conference.
The figures indicate that approximately 88.5 million people in Henan, which has a population of 99.4 million, may now be infected.
According to Kan, the peak in visits to fever clinics occurred on December 19, “after which it showed a continuous downward trend.”
Following its decision last month to end years of lockdowns, quarantines, and mass testing that had harmed its economy and sparked rare nationwide protests, China is facing an increase in cases.
And Beijing is determined to continue its reopening, lifting the mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals on Sunday and opening its border with the southern city of Hong Kong, which is semi-autonomous.
However, as the country celebrates Lunar New Year later this month, millions of people are expected to travel from major cities to rural areas to visit elderly relatives who are at risk of infection.
According to state media, official data showed that 34.7 million people traveled domestically on Saturday in the first wave of travel before the holidays—an increase of more than a third from last year.
Since China relaxed Covid restrictions at the beginning of December, only 120,000 people have been infected and 30 have died, according to official data from last week.
However, Beijing’s data no longer reflect the true scale of the outbreak because the definition of Covid deaths has been narrowed and mass testing is no longer required.
