China estimates 250mn people have caught Covid in 20 days
Chinese officials estimate about 250mn people or 18 per cent of the population were infected with Covid-19 in the first 20 days of December, as Beijing abruptly dismantled restrictions that had contained the disease for almost three years.
The estimates — which include 37mn people who were infected on Tuesday alone, or 2.6 per cent of the population — were revealed by Sun Yang, a deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in a Wednesday health briefing, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Sun said the rate of Covid’s spread in the country was still rising and estimated that more than half of the population in Beijing and Sichuan were already infected, the people briefed on the meeting said.
Meanwhile, the estimates of 250mn Covid cases raise further doubts about the accuracy of how Beijing accounts for deaths from the disease. The country has officially reported only eight deaths since December 1. Top health officials this week said they had narrowed the definition of what constituted a Covid death, in a move that reduced the public death tally.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Ryan McMorrow
