China’s COVID surge cast a shadow over Lunar New Year travel rush, but there are signs of hope

Tokyo — Celebrations are underway all around the world this week as Asians mark the Lunar New 12 months. It is at all times essentially the most festive time of the yr in China, however that is very true this yr. After Beijing suddenly dropped just about all of its draconian COVID-19 restrictions for the primary time since 2020, thousands and thousands of individuals headed dwelling to their cities and villages, taking full benefit of their new-found freedom.

However the huge vacation migration got here laborious on the heels of a surge in coronavirus cases across China. Public well being officers warned the travellers may carry the virus into distant areas and precipitate one other killer wave of infections. 

In his New 12 months video handle, President Xi Jinping admitted that China’s most up-to-date COVID surge had been fierce and quick, and it was no understatement. 

Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist on the China Middle for Illness Management and Prevention estimated that 80% of China’s inhabitants — a inhabitants of greater than 1.4 billion individuals, 4 occasions that of america — has now been contaminated with the virus. Most of these infections have come simply because the begin of December.

Chinese language well being officers have confirmed solely about 80,000 deaths from COVID-19, however Western analysts imagine that is a wild understatement of the actual impression.

Rasmus Bech Hansen, CEO of the well being analytics firm Airfinity, instructed CBS Information the variety of deaths from COVID-19 in China was anticipated to peak throughout the subsequent week or so, “and it’ll attain the 1-million mark. So, 1 million whole deaths on the finish of this month.”

The true determine could by no means turn out to be clear, particularly as Chinese language medical doctors have been below strain to not checklist COVID as a trigger on dying certificates.

With that backdrop, thousands and thousands of Chinese language metropolis dwellers took to trains, planes and vehicles during the last week to move again to go to household throughout the big nation for the Lunar New 12 months.

The priority was that the urbanites may deliver the virus again with them, into locations the place persons are usually less-well vaccinated and populations are sometimes older, presumably setting off one other huge wave of infections.

CBS Information visited the provincial metropolis of Zhaotong, the place we shot video covertly as COVID-19 remains to be a delicate topic for authorities.

We discovered that the virus had arrived a while in the past. One lady instructed us her mom had not too long ago examined constructive, and a person mentioned it appeared that just about everybody on the town — 80% by his personal estimation — had been contaminated.

It does seem that, because the nation’s leaders have mentioned, China’s COVID-19 outbreak has lastly peaked and is beginning to decline. 

If that is true, and the financial system begins selecting up, the New 12 months of the Rabbit will likely be off to an auspicious begin.

Elizabeth Palmer

Elizabeth Palmer has been a CBS Information correspondent since August 2000. She has been based mostly in London since late 2003, after having been based mostly in Moscow (2000-03). Palmer experiences primarily for the “CBS Night Information.”