Almost 90% of people in Henan, China’s third most populous province, are now infected with Covid, local health officials say.
Provincial official Kang Kuancheng released the figure – about 88.5 million people – at a press conference.
China has been grappling with an unprecedented surge in cases since abandoning its zero-covid policy in December.
The move comes after rare protests against lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing.
Mr. Kang did not give a timeline for when all the infections occurred, but since China’s previous policy of zero response to COVID kept cases to a minimum, the vast majority of Henan’s infections are likely to have occurred in the past few weeks.
He said visits to fever clinics in Henan province peaked on Dec. 19, “after which there has been a steady downward trend.”
The figures from Henan province are in stark contrast to the central government’s Covid numbers
According to official figures, only 120,000 people in the country of 1.4 billion have been infected and 30 have died since the change in Covid policy.
Meanwhile, authorities reported three Covid-related deaths in mainland China on Sunday, one more than the day before.
However, since the definition of Covid deaths has been narrowed and mass testing is no longer mandatory, government figures no longer reflect the true scale of the outbreak.
Other local and provincial officials also provide data that differs widely from that of the central government. On the eve of Christmas, a senior health official in the port city of Qingdao said that half a million people were infected every day. The numbers of these cases were quickly removed from the news.
Meanwhile, Chinese health officials said they would not include Pfizer’s Covid antiviral drug Paxlovid in their basic health insurance schemes because of the high price quoted by the US firm.
Demand for the drug, which is temporarily covered by China’s general health insurance scheme until March 31, has surged after the number of Covid cases surged in China last month.
Pfizer will continue to work with the Chinese government and all relevant stakeholders for the “safe and adequate supply” of drugs in China, the company said in a statement.
On Sunday, Beijing also lifted the mandatory quarantine for all international arrivals and opened the border with Hong Kong.
In the first wave of pre-holiday travel, official figures showed 34.7 million people traveled domestically on Saturday. According to state media, this was an increase of more than a third compared to last year.
The number of infections is expected to rise as the country celebrates the Lunar New Year later this month and millions of people are expected to travel from major cities to visit elderly relatives in the countryside.
In total, more than two billion individual trips are expected, officials say.
