China’s current Covid spike is just the first of three waves expected to sweep across the country this winter, a top health official has warned.
The country lifted its severe lockdown rules earlier this month after protests from Chinese citizens tired of the draconian measures.
But since easing the rules, the country has seen a surge in cases, experts say.
The current upward trend in infections will run until mid-January, while a second wave is likely to strike as millions of citizens travel for the Chinese New Year - which begins on January 21, Epidemiologist Wu Zunyou said.
Then as people return from after the holiday and re-enter workplaces a third wave will run from late February to mid-March, the doctor added.
The warning comes despite official figures showing a relatively low number of new daily cases, just 2,097 on Sunday. However, experts believe a recent reduction in testing means these numbers are likely to be an underestimate.
China’s high vaccination rates will offer protection against the surges, and mean fewer severe cases will emerge, Dr Wu told a conference on Saturday.
More than 90 per cent of China’s people have been fully vaccinated, according to officials - but less than half of people over 80 - a group more likely to get severe symptoms - have had three doses of the vaccine.
The most severe restrictions were lifted on December 7, following mass protests against China’s so-called ‘zero-Covid policy’ - this also signalled an end to mass testing, there had been no official reports of Covid deaths since then until today (December 19).
Chinese health authorities on Monday announced two additional COVID-19 deaths, both in the capital Beijing, that were the first reported in weeks
Beijing has seen anecdotal reports of deaths linked to Covid however, while soaring cases in China's largest city, Shanghai, has seen school classes moved online.
The surge also has hospitals in three other cities reportedly struggling to cope with the new influx of cases while postal and catering services are struggling.
The news comes days after U.S.-based Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) used a new mathematical model to project China’s abrupt lifting of measures could result in a million deaths in 2023.
According to the group's projections, cases in China would peak around April 1, when deaths would reach 322,000, Reuters reports. About a third of China's population will have been infected by then, IHME Director Christopher Murray said.
The vaccines used in China have been developed by the government and have been proven to be less effective than the mRNA vaccines used in much of the rest of the world.
