Covid Massacre Stares At China

China could see as many as 25,000 deaths a day from Covid-19 later in the first month of 2023, casting a shadow over the start of the first Lunar New Year festivities without pandemic restrictions.

BEIJING: The New year is not looking so good for China as the deadly covid-19 is back with a new variant. According to Scientists, China is preparing for another wave of Covid to hit its more vulnerable countryside in early 2023, as the current wave of infections overwhelms hospitals and intensive care units in many cities.

China could see as many as 25,000 deaths a day from Covid-19 later in the first month of 2023, casting a shadow over the start of the first Lunar New Year festivities without pandemic restrictions.

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Mortalities from the contagious respiratory illness will probably peak around Jan. 23, the second day of the annual holiday in the country of 1.4 billion, according to Airfinity Ltd., a London-based research firm that focuses on predictive health analytics.

Daily infections are likely to peak 10 days before, at around 3.7 million cases, the researcher said. China suddenly ended its Covid Zero policy about a month ago, abandoning the strict testing and lockdown measures embraced by the world’s second-largest economy since the start of the pandemic almost three years ago.

The resulting outbreaks have been difficult to gauge without an accurate count, forcing observers to rely on outside estimates and anecdotal evidence.

“Using the trends in regional data our team of epidemiologists has forecast the first peak to be in regions where cases are currently rising and a second peak driven by later surges in other Chinese provinces,” Airfinity said in a statement late on Thursday.

Daily infections are currently at around 1.8 million, with mortalities at 9,000, the researcher said. That’s up from the 5,000-plus daily estimate by Airfinity earlier this month and contrasts sharply with just around a dozen Covid deaths the Chinese government has reported in total since the dismantling of Covid restrictions in early December. By the end of April 2023, China may see 1.7 million deaths from this wave of infections, Airfinity said. Several countries are now screening travelers from China.

India’s Situation: India reported 243 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 4,46,78, 158. India has reported its first case of Omicron variant ‘XXB.1.5’ which is responsible for the surge in coronavirus cases in New York. The first case of XXB.1.5 has been confirmed in Gujarat, as per ET reports.

Police departments across the country have issued traffic curbs and advisories. Besides these, the Karnataka government earlier this week mandated that all events held to celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day should end by 1 am. Given the end-of-the-year celebrations, Punjab Police have issued an interesting five-point advisory asking people to “stay responsible and act responsible.

There will be a massive police deployment across Mumbai on New Year’s Eve too ensure there are no law and order issues considering the large public presence on the streets. As against the past two years, this year the police will also be using breathalyzer too curb drunk driving. However, other than Karanataka no other state has mandated a compulsory mask-wearing rule.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued revised Covid guidelines for passengers arriving on international flights, ahead of the RT-PCR negative test report being made compulsory for travelers from six countries, including China and Thailand.