2023-01-22 CNN report
On January 21, 2023, people walked on the street in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, central China.
A prominent government scientist claims that eight out of 10 people in China are now infected with COVID-19 .
Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Saturday (the eve of the Lunar New Year) that the current "epidemic wave has infected about 80% of the people" in the country of 1.4 billion people.
His claims come amid concerns that a wave of travel that occurs around the Lunar New Year holiday - sometimes called the "world's largest human migration" - could spread the virus into rural areas, triggering a second wave of infections.
But Wu said on his personal social media account that this is unlikely to happen because so many people have already been infected.
"There is a small chance of a large-scale rebound of COVID-19 or a second wave of nationwide infections in the next two to three months," Wu said.
China’s Ministry of Transport estimates that more than 2 billion passengers will travel during the 40-day Lunar New Year period, with people across the country returning to their hometowns for reunions without domestic travel restrictions for the first time since the epidemic began more than three years ago.
reports that this is only half the number of travelers on the same day in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak, but 50.8% higher than in 2022.
CCTV added that on the day before the start of the Lunar New Year, more than 4.1 million people took trains and 756,000 people flew to attend festive reunions.
The country’s road transport system registered more than 20 million passengers on the day, 55.1% higher than the 2022 figure.
As of Friday, China's transportation system handled more than 560 million passengers in the first 15 days of the 40-day Spring Festival rush for rail, road, water and air travel, a 47.9% increase from the same period last year, CCTV reported.
Doubts about infection numbers
Previously, research by the National School of Development at Beijing University showed that as of January 11, more than 900 million people (64% of China's population) were "likely" infected with the new coronavirus (Covid-19).
The university's research also showed that the epidemic peaked in much of the country on December 20, about 13 days before China began to relax COVID-19 restrictions.
According to the study, infections peaked across the country by the end of December.
Chinese health authorities issued a similar statement, saying on Thursday that the number of visits to fever and COVID-19 inpatient clinics in China had declined since the peak in late December and early January.
China's state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday that more than 26 million passengers traveled on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
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