China says Covid outbreak has infected 80 percent of population

government scientist said on Saturday that the likelihood of a major Covid-19 recurrence in China in the next two or three months is remote because 80% of people have been infected. Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said mass movement of people during the ongoing Lunar New Year holiday period could spread the outbreak and increase infections in some areas, but that a second Covid wave was unlikely in the near term. Hundreds of millions of Chinese are travelling across the country for holiday gatherings that were suspended under recently eased Covid restrictions, raising fears of new outbreaks in rural areas less equipped to handle major outbreaks. A National Health Commission official said on Thursday that China was seeing a surge in fever clinics, emergency rooms and critically ill Covid patients. As of Jan. 12, about a month after China abruptly lifted its zero-Covid policy, nearly 60,000 Covid patients had died in hospital, according to government data. However, some experts said it excluded those who died at home and many doctors did not indicate Covid as the cause of death.