Amid the escalating number of cases in the nation, up to 40% of the Chinese population contracted COVID-19 over the course of the previous month, according to an article in Asia Times that cited medical professionals.
According to the Hong Kong-based English news outlet, Chinese epidemiologist Zeng Guang stated that because most Chinese cities claimed that 50% of their residents had tested positive, it was fair to believe that 40% of the country’s population could have been infected.
Liang Wannian, a Chinese epidemiologist and the former leader of the Covid Response Expert Team of the Chinese National Health Commission, asserts that it is highly challenging to estimate the fatality rate of the present pandemic. According to a Chinese epidemiologist, accurate statistics will not be accessible until the pandemic is over.
Zeng Guang, a former top scientist and Ph.D. supervisor at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated that the virus spread in China was more rapid than expected.
According to a Chinese CDC internal document, the coronavirus affected 248 million people in December
According to a Chinese CDC internal document, the coronavirus affected 248 million people between December 1 and December 20. The total number of Covid infections worldwide has now surpassed 665 million, with 6.69 million people dying according to Asia Times.
On Wednesday, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus requested more trustworthy statistics on Covid hospitalizations and deaths in China.
On January 3, the Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) convened to address the COVID-19 situation in mainland China.
Scientists from the China CDC presented genetic data from imported as well as locally acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections during the symposium.
WHO will continue to closely monitor the situation in China and globally
According to a WHO release, the China CDC investigation revealed a prevalence of Omicron lineages BA.5.2 and BF.7 among locally acquired illnesses.” BA.5.2 and BF.7 together accounted for 97.5 percent of all local infections as per genomic sequencing,” the statement added.
According to the UN health organization, WHO will continue to closely monitor the situation in China and globally and advises all countries to be watchful, monitor and report sequences, and undertake an independent and comparative analysis of the various Omicron sublineages.