China: 90% of residents of Henan province infected with Covid-19

After three years of some of the most draconian restrictions in the world, China last month abruptly lifted most of its health measures against the coronavirus.

AP - Andy Wong

Text by: RFI Follow

3 mins

Nearly 90% of the inhabitants of the third most populous province of China have been infected with Covid 19. It is a local official who affirms it while the cases of contamination should increase further with the departures on New Year's vacation. lunar.

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From our correspondent in Beijing

,

The central government no longer publishes a daily assessment of the epidemic

 and it is the data communicated by the regions that make it possible to take the measure of the wave of contaminations which is sweeping over China, since the abandonment of the zero-Covid policy. a month ago.

According to Kan Quancheng, nearly 90% of the 100 million inhabitants of Henan would have already been infected on January 6th.

The rate of infection with the Omicron BA.5.2 subvariant in the province was then 89.1% in urban areas and 88.9% in rural areas, said the director of the provincial health commission.

However, it is the countryside that is now preparing to welcome city dwellers for the Spring Festival holidays.

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Epidemic peak exceeded

Although the peak of infections has passed, intensive care units remain under pressure, says the director of the #Henan epidemic control office.

89% of the inhabitants of this central province of #China have already been infected.

👉https://t.co/KBaGYDCR1L pic.twitter.com/4tUZ4OzNRs

— Stephane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) January 9, 2023

The bulk of the epidemic has passed according to the authorities who want to be reassuring before this traditional event which brings families together after the change of the moon.

The peak of the epidemic would have been crossed locally around December 19, with a record crowd in the "fever clinics".

Since then, the overall number of cases has been declining.

But hospitals remain under pressure with many patients showing severe symptoms of viral pneumonia, the Henan health commission official added at a press conference.

Figures that add to those published by a newspaper in the port of Qingdao,

.

The local official daily revealed that nearly 250 million Chinese had been infected on December 20.

The article has since been censored.

Later, health officials in the province of Zhejiang (eastern China) spoke of more than

 in a territory which has as many inhabitants as Italy.

Statistical models even projected two million people infected daily around the time of the Lunar New Year holiday, the first starts of which began this weekend.

99.5% more trips

Two billion trips are expected to be made in China during

, an increase of 99.5 percent over the same period last year, Xu Chengguang said.

The Chinese vice-minister of transport recalls, however, that this is still only 70% of the trips recorded in 2019, before the start of the pandemic.

That's not to mention travel abroad.

The opening of the Chinese borders on Sunday January 8 was

 in the dismantling of the disease prevention and control policy in force for three years.

China Central

 reported that direct flights to and from South Korea were sold out during the spring holiday common to Confucian-style countries.

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