Beijing, Europe Brief News – Nearly 900 million people in China have been infected with the coronavirus as of 11 January.
A new study by Peking University estimates that 64% of the country’s population has the virus.
It ranks Gansu province, where 91% of the people are reported to be infected, at the top, followed by Yunnan, (84%) and and Qinghai (80%).
A top Chinese epidemiologist has also warned that cases will surge in rural China over the lunar new year.
The peak of China’s Covid wave is expected to last two to three months, added Zeng Guang, ex-head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese are travelling to their hometowns – many for the first time since the pandemic began – ahead of the lunar new year on 23 January.
China has stopped providing daily Covid statistics since abandoning zero-Covid.
But hospitals in big cities – where healthcare facilities are better and more easily accessible – have become crowded with Covid patients as the virus has spread through the country.
Speaking at an event earlier this month, Mr Zeng said it was “time to focus on the rural areas”, in remarks reported in the Caixin news outlet.
Many elderly, sick and disabled in the countryside were already being left behind in terms of Covid treatment, he added.
China’s central Henan province is the only province to have given details of infection rates – earlier this month a health official there said nearly 90% of the population had had Covid, with similar rates seen in urban and rural areas.
However government officials say many provinces and cities have passed the peak of infections.
