Another massive Covid outbreak looms over China months after crippling wave, vaccine pushed

Beijing: Another country-wide wave of Covid infections is looming over China months after authorities lifted drastic ‘zero covid’ policy following widespread protest.

The ongoing wave of the new XBB variants of the virus is expected to infect as many as 65 million people in June, according to The Washington Post.

Authorities are working on more vaccines to combat the new wave which if goes uncontrolled could batter the nation’s economy further.

The new XBB variants is evolving to overcome the immunity people developed overtime.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post quoted Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan as saying that primarily approval has been given for two new vaccinations for the XBB omicron subvariants (including XBB. 1.9.1, XBB. 1.5, and XBB. 1.16).

The new outbreak could only match with the wave of infections in last winter after authorities stopped zero Covid programme, putting 85 per cent of population at risk.

However, Chinese officials reportedly claimed that the infections will be less severe.

Experts, nonetheless, believe that pushing out booster vaccines can only stop surge in mortality among the elderly population.

An epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health said that number of infections and severe cases will be less but it still could affect a large number of people.

Adding further the epidemiologist said that even if it is a milder wave, it could still leave ‘substantial health impact’ on the community.

Alongside, the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said that in the last two weeks of April Covid surpassed the flu in prevalence compared to other infectious diseases.