The outbreak is spreading rapidly across China, a week after the majority of health restrictions in place for nearly three years were lifted.

Authorities have admitted that it is now "impossible" for them to tally the number of cases.

"We are cremating 20 bodies a day, mostly old people. A lot of people have fallen ill recently," a crematorium worker told AFP.

The virus does not spare the staff: "we are made to work a lot! Out of 60 employees, more than 10 are positive (for Covid), but we have no choice, there is so much work lately", he added.

Another crematorium indicated that it now has a one-week waiting list.

However, official figures do not mention any Covid-related deaths since December 4.

"Coronavirus cold"

The organization in charge of the fight against Covid on Friday called on local governments to increase their surveillance and medical attention for people returning to their families in rural areas, as the Chinese New Year approaches in January.

The event causes the largest population migration in the world every year.

Demand is expected to explode this year, after restrictions on travel between provinces are lifted.

State media and Chinese health experts have played down the dangerousness of the Omicron variant in recent days, with respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan proposing to rename Covid as the "coronavirus cold".

But the country has millions of vulnerable elderly people who have not been vaccinated, while antigen tests and fever medications have become unavailable in many pharmacies.

An elderly man gets vaccinated against Covid-19, in Qingzhou, China on December 16, 2022 © STR / AFP

A recent study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong predicted that Covid could kill a million people in China this winter, absent a fourth dose of the vaccine or new restrictions.

Officially, only nine deaths have been attributed to the outbreak since mid-November.

The country has recorded more than 10,000 daily cases since.

Previously, no virus-related deaths had been reported between May 28 and November 19.

When the first cases were detected in December 2019 in Wuhan (center), many deaths of Covid-positive patients had not been listed, due to strict national rules for attributing death to the virus, according to the explanation given to the time by Chinese media.

Crowded hospitals

This week, the directors of five retirement homes told the local press that they could no longer obtain antigen tests or medicines due to shortages.

They said they have no contingency plan in case cases explode.

Employees of many retirement homes in Beijing, contacted by AFP on Friday, refused to discuss the situation in their establishments.

Nationally, many nursing homes continue to operate "closed circuit" - a containment measure where staff must sleep on site - according to notices posted online in recent days.

But China's lack of doctors' offices means that people tend to go to the hospital even for a minor problem, which easily causes congestion.

Queue for the Covid-19 test outside a hospital in Hangzhou, China, December 16, 2022 © STR / AFP

Videos of Covid patients sitting on stools outside crowded hospitals receiving saline infusions have gone viral on social media.

AFP was able to geolocate one of these videos, shot in front of a hospital in the city of Hanchuan, in the province of Hubei (center), a hospital employee confirming that it dates from Tuesday.

"The patients in this video were willing to sit outside in the sun, as there were a bit too many people inside," he told AFP.

© 2022 AFP