Say it ain’t so! Y’all know this Covid-19 shit started in China; now they are saying they are expected to see as many 65 million cases per week by the end of June, according to a Bloomberg report.
Bloomberg said a respiratory disease specialist in China named Zhong Nanshan at a biotech conference in Guangzhou predicted the surge.
Zhong’s estimate says the latest omicron variant XBB has fueled a resurgence in cases across China since late April.
According to a Bloomberg report, the variant XBB is expected to result in 40 million infections per week by the end of May before reaching 65 million in June.
Six months ago, Beijing dismantled its Covid Zero curbs, which allowed the virus to spread among the country’s 1.4 billion residents rapidly.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly stopped its weekly statistics in early May, which has left many with questions about the true impact of Covid-19 in China.
Zhong says the wave of infections will be more muted than the wave that hit China late last year.
China has responded to the threat by bolstering its vaccine arsenal with new immunizations targeting the XBB variant.
An advisory group from the World Health Organization has recommended that this year’s COVID-19 booster shots target the dominant XBB variant.
Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna Inc, and Novavax Inc are currently developing versions of their respective vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 and other currently circulating strains.
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