What’s new: China’s nationwide Covid infections could remain high for another two to three months, with severe case numbers staying elevated for even longer, the former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Zeng Guang, said.
“This epidemic is coming in waves, one after another, first in Beijing, then in Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing and elsewhere,” Zeng said at a recent news conference on a Covid jab developed by Beijing-based biotech company SinoCellTech.
Earlier, Zeng’s successor at the CDC, Wu Zunyou, predicted that China would experience three waves of Covid infections this winter, with the last wave ending in mid-March.
What’s more: After abandoning its long-held “zero-Covid” policy last month, China’s case count has been spiraling upward. With many parts of China, including big cities such as Beijing and Chongqing, announcing that they’re already past their infection peaks, Zeng noted “it’s time to focus most on rural areas.”
The health expert added that rural areas have a large number of “left-behind” people, including the elderly and disabled, yet medical resources and conditions there are poor. While acknowledging that the country’s anti-Covid strategy for rural areas is good, he said the question is how to implement it effectively.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Bertrand Teo (bertrandteo@caixin.com)
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