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China is dealing with its first-ever national Covid-19 wave. According to the news agency ANI, health experts anticipate 100 million Covid cases and one million fatalities in China because to the recent increase in infections.
Dr. Neeraj Kumar Gupta, HOD of Pulmonary Medicine at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital said, “Based on mathematical calculations, we expect close to 100 million Covid cases in China, five million admissions and one million deaths, which is a huge number.”
He stated that China is at the same level as India was earlier, but that India is now well-versed in fighting the infection. He claims that Chinese individuals have low immunity as a result of the country’s tight lockdown policies.
“We faced the first wave, the second wave of a much serious delta variant, and the third wave of the Omicron variant which was not that serious but very infectious,” Dr. Gupta told ANI.
Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya noted the global increase in Covid cases and stated that the Centre and States must engage in “tandem” and in a “collaborative attitude,” as they did during earlier surges.
On Friday, he presided over a virtual meeting with state health ministers, Principal Secretaries, Additional Chief Secretaries, and Information Commissioners to examine the Covid-19 situation in the country.
According to the minister, the country must be on high alert and completely equipped for Covid management.
The meeting was held in the presence of Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar, NITI Aayog member V K Paul, to review public health preparedness for containment and management of Covid-19, as well as the progress of the national Covid vaccination campaign, in light of the recent increase in cases in some countries such as China, Japan, Brazil, and the United States.
According to Radio Free Asia, citing leaked official documents circulating on social media, Covid-19 may have touched around 250 million individuals in China in just 20 days after the zero-covid policy was weakened in the first week of the month.
According to the leaked paper, 248 million people, or 17.65 percent of China’s population, were infected with Covid-19 from December 1 to 20, according to the 20-minute meeting of China’s National Health Commission.
According to Radio Free Asia, the data of covid cases given by government officials on December 20 differs from reality, with over 37 million estimated.