China reports thousands of Covid deaths in 1 week, amid estimates 80 per cent of population has been infected

China reported almost 13,000 Covid-19 deaths in one week, while a leading epidemiologist said around 80 per cent of Chinese had already been infected so a second wave was unlikely in the near future.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday that the death toll related to Covid-19 in hospitals reached 12,658 in the seven days between January 13 and 19.

The country had previously reported nearly 60,000 deaths between December 8 and January 12 after the abrupt ending of the zero-Covid policy.

Separately, Wu Zunyou, the CDC’s chief epidemiologist, played down concerns about a second wave in the next few months while also calling for caution over the elderly and other vulnerable groups over the Lunar New Year holiday.

“The massive social mobility during Chinese New Year could accelerate the spread of the pandemic to a certain extent, and the number of infected people will increase in some areas,” Wu wrote in a post on the social media site Weibo on Saturday.

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But because the latest wave had infected about 80 per cent of the people in the country there was little possibility of a large-scale epidemic rebound or a second wave of cases in the next two to three months, Wu said.

China has seen a tsunami of Covid infections since Beijing abruptly dropped its restrictive zero-Covid policies last month without making preparations for the shift.

The official death toll was greeted with scepticism after the authorities narrowed the definition of Covid deaths, with concerns the true numbers are being underestimated.

Several provinces have reported this month that they have reached the peak of infections, and that shortages of medical supplies have eased, but hospitals are still under heavy pressure.

“The country as a whole has passed the peak of the wave. Cities and counties of all sizes are basically seeing infections come down,” Wu wrote.

Billions of trips will be taken by Chinese people during the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival season, as the country marks the first major holiday after the lifting of travel restrictions.

Lunar New Year’s Eve fell on Saturday this week, starting a week-long statutory holiday that runs until January 27, and many companies also give their employees extra time off.

The mass movement has triggered concerns about the pandemic in rural areas, where the provision of medical services is patchy at best, and the possible emergence of a second wave.

Up to 5 billion journeys are expected to be made during this year’s Spring Festival, including 2.1 billion on the country’s transit system, according to the Ministry of Transport, almost double the number made in the same period last year.

On Saturday, some 800,000 passengers took domestic flights, twice the number seen during Lunar New Year’s Eve in 2022, official data showed.

On Friday, the number of passengers travelling by air nationwide exceeded 1.1 million, a 25 per cent increase compared with a year earlier and 74 per cent of the total from the same period in 2019.

During the Spring Festival holiday period, the number of domestic passenger flights is expected to surge by nearly 70 per cent compared with the same period last year.

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While many people have welcomed the opportunity to finally reunite with family members after three years of Covid restrictions, high-risk groups remain vulnerable.

Wu said older people should be closely monitored for symptoms and people who were infected should avoid travelling long distances to visit family and friends.

He added that those who only recently recovered and still had symptoms should take it easy and continue wearing masks in public.

Discussing threats from abroad, Wu said despite cases in China of XBB.1.5, one of the prevailing variants in the United States, those cases were still rare, exclusively imported and unlikely to lead to a fresh wave in China.