Almost 90 per cent of people in China's third most populous province have been infected with COVID as the country battles an unprecedented surge in cases.
Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, said "as of January 6, 2023, the province's COVID infection rate is 89.0 per cent."
With a population of 99.4 million, the figures suggest about 88.5 million people in Henan have been infected.
Visits to fever clinics peaked on December 19, Mr Kan said, "after which it showed a continuous downward trend".
China has been battling a surge in cases following its decision last month to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing that had hammered its economy and sparked rare nationwide protests.
Beijing is determined to press on with its reopening, on Sunday lifting mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals and opening its border with the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong.
Those crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China, however, are still required to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within the previous 48 hours — a measure China has protested when imposed by other countries.
Borders reopen for busy travel period
Hong Kong has been hit hard by the virus, and its land and sea border checkpoints with the mainland have been largely closed for almost three years.
Despite the risk of new infections, the reopening that will allow tens of thousands of people who have made prior online bookings to cross each day is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Hong Kong's tourism and retail sectors.
On the day border restrictions eased, Hong Kong media reports said around 300,000 travel bookings from the city to mainland China had already been made, with a daily quota of 60,000.
Limited ferry service also was restored from China's Fujian province to the Taiwanese-controlled island of Kinmen, just off the Chinese coast.
The border crossing with Russia at Suifenhe in the far northern province of Heilongjiang also resumed normal operations, just in time for the opening of the ice festival in the capital of Harbin, a major tourism draw.
And at Ruili, on the border with Myanmar, normal operations were resumed after 1,012 days of full or partial closure in response to repeated outbreaks blamed partly on visitors from China's neighbour.
So far, only a fraction of the previous number of international flights have been arriving at major Chinese airports.
Beijing's main Capital International Airport was expecting eight flights from overseas on Sunday.
Since March 2020, all international passenger flights bound for Beijing have been diverted to designated first points of entry into China.
Passengers had been required to quarantine for up to three weeks.
Cases rising as travel increases
Infections are expected to soar as the country celebrates Lunar New Year later this month, with millions expected to travel from big cities to visit older relatives in the countryside.
In the first wave of pre-holiday travel, official data showed 34.7 million people travelled domestically on Saturday — up by more than a third compared to last year, according to state media.
Authorities said they expected domestic rail and air journeys to double last year's figures, bringing overall numbers close to those of the 2019 holiday period before the pandemic hit.
Official data showed last week that just 120,000 people have been infected and 30 died since China relaxed COVID curbs in early December.
But with Beijing having last month narrowed the definition of COVID deaths, permitted people with mild symptoms to test themselves and convalesce at home and mass testing no longer compulsory, its data is no longer reflective of the true scale of the outbreak.
The National Health Commission on Sunday reported 7,072 new confirmed cases of local transmission and two new deaths — even as individual provinces were reporting as many as 1 million cases per day.
China's vulnerabilities have been increased by the population's general lack of exposure to the virus and a relatively low vaccination rate among the elderly.
AFP/AP/ABC
