Chief epidemiologist says China is in the first of an expected three waves of Covid cases, despite official figures showing low numbers
Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, Wu Zunyou of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said the current outbreak would peak this winter and run in three waves for about three months, according to a state media report of his speech.
A third wave of cases would run from late February to mid-March as people returned to work after the holiday, Wu said. A US-based research institute said this week that the country could see an explosion of cases and over a million people in China could die of Covid in 2023. In Beijing, the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has already hit services from catering to parcel deliveries. Funeral homes and crematoriums across the city of 22 million are also struggling to keep up with demand amid staff shortages as workers and drivers call in sick.
Authorities have not made vaccination mandatory in the wake of previous public backlashes. Last week China said it would start to offer a second booster – or fourth shot – for high-risk groups and people over 60. “After a while, people see no hope and also they are kind of forced to get the Chinese ones, so they had to accept it. Some doctors talked to me, and said it’s useless anyway, why waste the money.”
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