London, Europe Brief News – Experts have urged people to stay cautious and wear masks over the current Covid surge in China.
China is reporting about 5,000 cases a day, but analysts say such numbers are vastly undercounted – and the daily case load may be closer to a million.
Hospitals are overwhelmed and residents are struggling to find basic medicines, according to reports.
But experts say there is no reason to worry right now.
“The infection surge in China is on expected lines. If you have a susceptible population that is not exposed to the virus, cases will rise. Nothing has changed for the rest of the world,” says Dr Chandrakant Lahariya, an epidemiologist and health systems specialist.
China has been struggling with a rush of Covid cases after it started moving away from its so-called zero-Covid approach which mandated strict lockdowns, quarantining and closed borders.
The country is now trying to ramp up vaccinations for its vulnerable elderly population as the case surge strains healthcare systems.
Some people reacted angrily on China’s censored social media.
“I thought all of the foreign countries had opened up. Isn’t this racism?” read one comment that was liked 3,000 times on Weibo. The US has said testing is required of anyone coming from China, or via a third country, regardless of nationality.
But others said they understood the reason for the conditions: “This is nothing compared to all the restrictions we had for people coming into China,” one user wrote.
The surge has also led some experts raising doubts over whether the main vaccines used in China – Sinovac and Sinopharm – can provide long-term immunity.
