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As per the study published in the journal Nature Medicine, ‘about 92% of the 22 million people in Beijing will be infected by the end of January while almost 76% have already been infected by December 22.’
The study also claimed that the reproductive rate of the virus increased to 3.44, which means one person with the virus can infect 3.44 others.
Notably, last week, a top official noted that almost 90 per cent of China’s third most populous province was infected with Covid. Kan Quancheng, director of the health commission for central Henan province, noted during a press briefing that ‘as of January 6, 2023, the province’s Covid infection rate is 89.0 per cent’, as per AFP.
Earlier, an expert claimed that over 70% of the population in Shanghai is already infected with Covid amidst the alarming surge in cases in China.
“Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 per cent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than (in April and May),” Chen Erzhen, vice president at Ruijin Hospital and a member of Shanghai’s Covid expert advisory panel told Dajiangdong Studio, which is owned by state media People’s Daily.
A top Chinese epidemiologist had earlier warned that the Covid wave will peak in China in the next two to three months. Zeng Guang, the former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also noted that the wave will have a massive impact on the rural areas of the country.
