According to a Peking University study, approximately 900 million people in China were infected with the coronavirus as of 11 January.
According to the report, the virus infects 64% of the country’s population.
It places Gansu province first, with 91% of the population infected, followed by Yunnan (84%), and Qinghai (80%).
A top Chinese epidemiologist has also predicted an increase in cases in rural China during the lunar new year.
According to Zeng Guang, former head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, the peak of China’s Covid wave is expected to last two to three months.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese are returning home, many for the first time since the pandemic began, in preparation for the lunar new year on January 23. Since abandoning zero-Covid, China has stopped providing daily Covid statistics.
However, as the virus has spread throughout the country, hospitals in major cities, where healthcare facilities are better and more easily accessible, have become overcrowded with Covid patients.
Mr Zeng said earlier this month at an event that it was “time to focus on rural areas,” according to the Caixin news outlet.
He added that many elderly, sick, and disabled people in the countryside were already being left behind in terms of Covid treatment.
China’s central Henan province is the only one that has provided information on infection rates; earlier this month, a health official there said nearly 90% of the population had Covid, with similar rates in urban and rural areas.
However, government officials claim that the peak of infections has passed in many provinces and cities.
The Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, which officially begin on January 21, involve the world’s largest annual migration of people. Tens of millions of people have already travelled, with two billion trips expected in total.
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