The peak of Covid cases in a single day in China reached 7 million people around Dec. in the country this Wednesday (25).
The number of serious cases fell by 72% compared to the beginning of this month, and daily deaths in hospitals decreased by 79%, according to the agency. On January 4, the country registered 128,000 serious cases, a number that dropped to 36,000 on Monday (23), and 4,273 deaths in medical centers – there were 896 at the beginning of this week.
In Brazil, the daily peak of cases was on February 3, 2022, when 1.3 million infected people were registered. In the US, the highest number of cases in a single day was 4 million, on January 10, 2022. With 1.4 billion people, China is the most populous country in the world.
The data were released after Wu Zunyou, head of epidemiology at the center, said that the country will not have a second wave of infections in the next three months and that 80% of the population has already been contaminated.
Last week, the National Health Commission had already stated that the country had overcome the peak of Covid patients in clinics and emergency rooms. According to government data, nearly 60,000 people with the disease had died in hospitals in just over a month to Jan. 12, after China scrapped the Covid-zero policy with intensity following a series of protests against the measures.
Experts say that figure likely underestimates the full impact, as it excludes those who died at home and because many doctors report being discouraged from citing Covid as the cause of death.
Amid one of the worst outbreaks of the disease, the country changed the definition of death from Covid at the end of last year. In this classification, criticized by the WHO (World Health Organization), infected by the virus who die with other associated conditions do not enter the accounting of victims of the disease.
The country celebrates this and next week the Lunar New Year, in the first major celebration without Covid zero restrictions. In January, concerns about the rise in cases due to the flow of travel led a government official to publicly discourage the population from visiting elderly relatives.
The tendency of the holiday is for inhabitants of large cities to travel to their home provinces, which are often farther away, with a less well-equipped health system and lower vaccination rates. The immunization rate among the elderly is also a topic of attention at this time.
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