Shanghai state media has reported on Tuesday, January 3 that the city with more than 24 million residents has a huge surge in cases of COVID-19. A senior doctor at one of Shanghai’s top hospitals has said that 70 percent of the megacity’s population may have been infected with COVID-19.
The rise in cases came after the ease of restrictions in the city last month.
A member of Shanghai’s COVID expert advisory panel,Chen Erzhen, who is also the vice president at Ruijin Hospital shared in the local news that majority of the city’s people may have been infected.
“Now the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai is very wide, and it may have reached 70 percent of the population, which is 20 to 30 times more than (in April and May),” he told Dajiangdong Studio, owned by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
They are also attributing the sudden rise in infections with the new omicron variant which they initially predicted to peak in early 2023.
Other major cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing and Guangzhou, Chinese health officials have suggested that the wave has already peaked.
Residents are now worried as millions anticipate to come home to celebrate the Chinese New Year which usually begins on January 21.
