China’s flu infections rose while COVID-19 cases continued to drop from a December peak after the nation eased pandemic restrictions.
The flu positivity rate jumped to 14.3% in the seventh week of 2023 from 3.4% previously, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in its weekly COVID-19 surveillance report Saturday. The COVID-19 positivity rate dropped further to 3.4% in the same week from 4.1%.
The number of COVID-related death at medical institutions fell to 7 in the seven-day period ending Feb. 23, with all of them dying from underlying diseases and none from respiratory failure. The number of COVID-19 cases infected with omicron subvariants known as XBB in local transmission ticked up slightly to 6.
