BEIJING: China’s current wave of the COVID-19 epidemic is nearing an end, with rural and remote areas getting through the Spring Festival holiday without spikes in infections and no new virus mutations detected, officials and experts said.
Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission, said at a news briefing on Monday that the epidemic is at a low level nationwide and in steady decline.
China ended the requirement for mass testing on Dec 8 and downgraded its management of the disease from Class A to Class B on Jan 8.
Following the optimization of the antivirus strategy, the epidemic peaked in late December and then declined. The number of severe cases and deaths at hospitals has continued to trend downward, according to a report released recently by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of COVID-19 deaths at hospitals peaked at around 4,270 on Jan 4, and fell consistently to reach less than 900 fatalities on Jan 23.
“By late January, the overall epidemic had waned, easing the strain on the nation’s medical systems,” the report said. No significant rebound occurred during the Spring Festival holiday from Jan 21 to Friday, and no new viral mutation was detected. “This wave of the epidemic is drawing to a conclusion,” the report said. Before the weeklong holiday, concerns over the impact of COVID centered on rural areas as millions of migrant workers traveled home. According to the Ministry of Transport, 226 million trips were made during the holiday, a year-on-year increase of 71.2 percent, but lower than the same period in 2019. Mao Dezhi, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs’ rural cooperative economy bureau, said rural areas saw no major increase in new infections during the holiday thanks to concerted efforts in protecting vulnerable groups and supplying key medical equipment and oral medications to grassroots clinics.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN
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