A member of China’s Covid task force has recently predicted that the upcoming Covid epidemic could infect 60 percent of the population or 840 million people.

During the nearly three years that the world has been grappling with Covid, China has stood out for its “zero Covid” policies, which locked down residents for months, inciting public outrage and destroying its economy.

Now that it has relaxed many of these regulations, the country is experiencing a Covid wave that brings back memories of 2020 for the rest of us.

While official case counts have decreased in Chinese cities, this decline reflects a substantial reduction in testing. Reports indicate that Covid is currently ravaging the population, forcing businesses to close and straining a medical system that cannot handle the influx of Covid patients. Yesterday, there were 16 times more visits to fever clinics than the previous week.

A member of China’s Covid task force has recently predicted that the upcoming Covid wave will infect sixty percent of the population. Given China’s population of 1,4 billion, 840 million individuals could receive Covid in the coming weeks.

Why will the spread of Covid be so rapid? The population of China has low resistance to the virus. Due to Beijing’s Covid crackdown, many people have not been infected. In addition, the government has refused to import effective mRNA vaccines from Western nations, relying instead on homegrown vaccines. One-third of citizens aged 60 and older who have not received a third Omicron-specific vaccination are elderly.