Iran Press/ Asia: China is expecting a peak in COVID-19 infections. The country reports over a million new infections and at least 5,000 deaths daily.
Authorities are predicting extra strain on the country's healthcare system. The mainland, however, continues to downplay the disease's severity.
China officials reported less than 4,000 new symptomatic local Covid cases nationwide on December 22 and no further Covid deaths for a third straight day.
China is battling a wave of infections that have hit the elderly hard but has officially logged only a handful of deaths from the coronavirus after the government redefined the criteria by which Covid deaths are counted.
Shanghai hospital had estimated half of the commercial hub's 25 million people would get infected by the end of next week.
Following the Xi Jinping government's sudden decision to lift years of Covid lockdowns, quarantines, and mass testing, pharmacies in China were stripped bare, leading to a frantic attempt to hoard all necessities.
As Covid cases catapult in China and other parts of the world, Chinese authorities have reportedly requisitioned medical supplies production as medicine stores run dry, leaving millions across the country struggling for essential drugs and testing kits.
At the same time, hospital wards in all major Chinese cities are filling up with elderly Covid-19 patients.
A study estimated that China might already be recording over a million new infections and at least 5,000 deaths daily, despite criticism of the lack of transparent data on Covid deaths and illnesses.
Covid cases have also been rising in the US and Japan, while India has detected at least three instances of the Omicron BF.7 variant. However, experts have said there is no need to panic as patients recover from the disease.
Earlier in December, China pulled back protocols of its 'zero-Covid' regime; a tactic the country has followed since the beginning of the pandemic to keep the number of infections low. This involved mass testing and strict quarantining. China has become the last major country to move towards living with the virus.
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