Two weeks after China lifted its zero-covid policy, the spread of infection right now is described as the largest the world has seen. A new analysis that the Bloomberg news agency has taken part in speaks of 5,000 deaths and 1 million infected – every day. But the death toll is reported to be few, and the World Health Organization is urging China to be more transparent.
China has a known shortage of intensive care places, especially in smaller cities and rural areas, where just over a third of the population lives.
That is one of the reasons why American and British analysis companies fear that over a million, perhaps two million, Chinese may die from covid within a year.
– I think we are at 50 percent or less who have taken two doses if they are over 60. That is not enough protection in a population as large as China’s, says Mike Ryan who is the head of crisis preparedness at the WHO.
Hear a Chinese doctor speak in the player above