Over 60% of China, 10% of world’s population to be infected with COVID & millions may die: Top epidemiologist

New Delhi, Dec 20: With China witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19 cases, a top epidemiologist has claimed that the highly contagious virus will affect 60 percent of China and 10 percent of Earth's population over the next 90 days with deaths likely in the millions.

 

 

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, made the estimate. The point is China and the world is in deep trouble, said Feigl-Ding. According to some health experts, the COVID cases are doubling in China in "hours" and not in days.

 

 

China on December 19 confirmed its first deaths from Covid-19 since easing its containment policy. Besides, hospitals and crematoriums in China are struggling with a fresh coronavirus outbreak.

 

Dr Wu Zunyou said the current COVID surge in China is expected to last until mid-January. He also said that the Lunar New Year holiday may trigger a second wave through mid-February. The third COVID peak in China is expected be witnessed from late February to mid-March, he said.

 

For nearly three years, the Chinese government has used strict lockdowns, centralised quarantines, mass testing and rigorous contact tracing to curb the spread of the virus, CNN.

 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Globally, as of 4:54pm CET, December 19, 2022, there have been 649,038,437 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,645,812 deaths, reported to WHO.

 

As of December 12, 2022, a total of 13,008,560,983 vaccine doses have been administered across the world, the WHO informed. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The COVID outbreak across the world has killed millions and devastated economies across the world.